A Box Full of Secrets
by XFeelXTheXLoveX
Summary: My English Love Affair Sequel. It's been a smooth sailing two years for everyone, but what happens when old secrets come back from the past & are revealed, along with a threat resting upon someone's shoulders? With secrets spilling, relationships & friendships straining, no body is certain for a happy ending.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, hey, hey, hey! I see a lot of you have been waiting for the My English Love Affair sequel for a while now. But no more waiting. It's here YAY! and all your unanswered questions are finally going to be answered :) But... Not yet ;) Give it a few chapters.**

**Hope you enjoy the sequel!**

**NOTE: Seen as though I'm re-writing My English Love Affair, there's going to be a few changes in this story. The Rockliff VS Kellington thing NEVER happened and I'm also changing the way Laura died bc cancer is way too complicated to write about, so I'm just gonna go with something simple and an easy death to write about. So PLEASE remember that! I'll keep posting this in a few chapters every now & then just so you all know & remember :D**

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><p><strong>Title: <strong>A Box Full of Secrets

**Summery: **My English Love Affair Sequel. It's been a smooth sailing two years for everyone, but what happens when old secrets come back from the past & are revealed, along with a threat resting upon someone's shoulders? With secrets spilling, relationships & friendships straining, no body certain for a happy ending.

**Genre: **Drama, Romance, Humour, Hurt/Comfort

**Starring: **Ross Lynch, Rydel Lynch, Bradley Simpson, Connor Ball, Riker Lynch, Rocky Lynch, Ellington Ratliff, Alexa Dowd, Tristan Evans & more.

**Couples: **Rad & more

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

****2 Years Later****

They did it.

They went on their final world tour together and finished being R5 and The Vamps for good. The whole tour took just over a year and that was it. Done. Finished. Yes, it was a little bit emotional but it wasn't like they weren't going to stop seeing each other.

Ross and Brad were married. Connor and Rydel had Tyler and Matty that kept them both together, and would do for the rest of their life's. Even if Tyler and Matty didn't exist, Connor and Rydel would still see each other due to Brad and Ross. But, the difference is that they would still be R5 and The Vamps.

That full year and a bit of the tour was definitely the best time of their life's. Nothing went wrong. No drama was caused. Nothing. At all. Apart from the start of the tour. That was a little bit dramatic.

After receiving the box off Natalie the day Brad left with Ross to go to America, Connor and Tristan were not happy with what Brad had kept from them as well as James. So as soon as Day 1 started of the joint R5 and The Vamps tour, they cornered him in a room by himself and started questioning him on it. Of course, Brad blamed James for letting them see it, which resulted in James telling him it was Natalie who brought the box out etc, etc.. For days, Tristan and Connor kept asking him why he hadn't told Ross, and he told him that he didn't want to and there was no point any more.

Tristan and Connor really wanted Brad to tell Ross, but he was having none of it. Tristan even threatened to tell Ross many times, but they soon moved on and forgot about the whole situation. Like it had never happened.

And to this day, the only people who know that secret is still Brad, James, Connor and Tristan. Nobody else. It was a secret they were taking to their graves.

Well, at least one of them was.

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><p>The day was getting on in LA, and it was almost seven at night.<p>

Rydel had gone out for the day to do something that she hadn't told anybody about, which left Ross alone to look after Tyler and Matty at her apartment whilst Brad stayed at home and looked after Jesse. Normally they would have both looked after the boys at their apartment when Rydel was busy, or she would sometimes get Riker, Ellington or Rocky to look after them, but after the last time Ross and Brad both looked after them together, it ended up in a trip to the hospital due to Tyler and Matty chasing each other and Matty ended up falling over, and hitting his head off the corner of the door frame.

There was a lot of blood.

Of course, that resulted in a lot of yelling from Rydel towards Ross and Brad even though it technically wasn't their fault. They did warn the boys not to run, but three-year old's will be three year old's and not listen. Brad would have went to Rydel's and helped him with Tyler and Matty, but that meant leaving Jesse on her own in the apartment all day and he didn't like leaving her alone for too long. Last time they left her home for the full day, because they had no choice, she ended up chewing everything that was chewable. But dogs will be dogs and chew everything when they're nervous.

Ross walked through the door of his and Brad's apartment at around half past seven. He felt so tired after looking after two kids for the day. Who knew looking after children would be so hard? Especially by yourself.

Brad looked up from where he sat on the couch, and watched as Ross came over and fell over the arm of the couch and laid in that position tiredly. "Which one?" Brad asked.

"Matty."

Brad stroked his hair "There, there. All children go through a phase of being a... devil? Shall we call it being a devil? Just turns out Matty got his phase a little earlier."

"No. He's just taking after his Dad."

"Hey, Connor's not a nasty person. He's nice."

Ross looked up at Brad, staring at him confused "Are you forgetting who is the father of Matty and who is the father of Tyler?" Ross asked, where realisation hit Brad that Connor is Tyler's father not Matty's "exactly. Jesus, Brad, you've been there since they were babies. How could you have forgotten?" he asked.

Brad shrugged "I don't know. Because Titus isn't around for Matty like Connor is, so I keep thinking Connor is both their Dad's. That's why."

Ross nodded in agreement "True. Speaking of Connor, isn't he supposed to be coming to America some time soon?" Ross asked, and again Brad shrugged "Why do you keep shrugging? Your shoulders are gonna fall off if you keep doing that."

"I don't know. You keep asking me questions I don't know the answer too. That's why. Where was Rydel today? Why couldn't she look after Tyler and Matty?"

Ross shrugged, sitting up on the couch properly "I don't know."

"Wow," Brad said, staring at him bemused at the fact he got annoyed at Brad shrugging his shoulders all the time and then Ross goes and does afterwards. Brad looked back down to his phone "I've been trying to ring him all day, but he hasn't responded. Normally he does by now. Maybe he's busy or something. But I don't know what with. I even tried James and Tristan. They're not picking up either." he explained, finding it slightly suspicious.

Maybe they'd finally given up on Brad. Even though Connor can't technically give up on him because he has to come over to the states to see Tyler and Matty which means having to see Ross which also means having to see Brad. Tristan and James don't have to though, so technically they can give up on him. But he doesn't see why they would give up on him and why they wouldn't answer. He hasn't done anything wrong as far as he knows.

Unless a certain something has cropped up again and they've got angry over it. But James wouldn't get angry over it. But now Brad's starting to think he's getting paranoid, especially since that was 2 years ago and they were well over it 4 months after they found out.

"Have you done something that you shouldn't have?" Ross asked.

Brad shook his head "Nope. I spoke to them yesterday and they all seemed fine. Even Sally spoke to me!" Brad said. Yes, James and Sally were still together surprisingly. Brad's going to be honest, he didn't think they would both last this long.

And honestly, neither did Ross.

But hey, life has a funny way of working things out.

They should know that by now.

"I'm so bored. I might take Jesse for a walk," Brad said, seeing her resting her head on Ross's lap from where she sat on the floor "are you gonna come with or is that a stupid question?"

"Stupid question. I've been looking after Satan juniors all day, but now Rydel's back and she can look after her satanic children."

Brad laughed. He pecked Ross on the lips and got up from the couch, making Ross whimper because now he just put him in the mood. Ross sighed as Brad went over to get Jesse's lead. Just as Brad picked up her lead and Jesse started getting excited, Brad's phone started ringing on the arm of the chair. Ross looked at it and Brad asked who it was as he untangled the lead. "It's Tristan. Should I answer?" Ross asked, picking it up, and Brad nodded "Sup Tristan."

"Alright, Jesse calm down, god." Brad said, trying to stop her from jumping up at him.

"What's wrong Tristan?" Ross asked, feeling nervous as Tristan started panicking over the phone, which caught Brad's attention "what's wrong? What happened? Is everyone alright..?" Ross asked, letting a silence fall over them "y-yeah, he's here... do you wanna talk to him or do you want to tell me and I'll tell him? Well go ahead, tell me. What. Oh my god. Are they alright?" Ross asked, standing up and having fear in his eyes "oh my god. Y-yeah, I'll tell him. Thanks for calling." he hung up the phone and put it back on the couch.

"What is it..?" Brad asked.

Ross breathed deeply "Yeah... slight change of plan. You're not taking Jesse for a walk. We're going back to England instead."

"What? Why?" Brad asked, hanging Jesse's lead back where it belonged and beginning to panic.

"Something happened to Connor and James. And it's really serious because... the doctor's don't think one of them's going to make it through the next few nights."

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><p><strong>Sorry for the short shit chapter, but I didn't want to give anything away about the main storyline &amp; what's to come. So why not start it off with Ross &amp; Brad before anybody else comes into it, right? :)<strong>

**As crappy as this was, I hope you ALL enjoyed it :)**

**_PLEASE REVIEW!:D_ & let me know what you think is going to happen in the future of this story ;)**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm sorry if this story seems like it's moving along fast, it's just... there's nothing really interesting to write about unless you want me to write about a god knows how many hour long plane ride lol.**

**Also, a long asking question is about to be answered ;)**

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><p><strong><strong>NOTE: Seen as though I'm re-writing My English Love Affair, there's going to be a few changes in this story. The Rockliff VS Kellington thing NEVER happened and I'm also changing the way Laura died bc cancer is way too complicated to write about, so I'm just gonna go with something simple and an easy death to write about. So PLEASE remember that! I'll keep posting this in a few chapters every now &amp; then just so you all know &amp; remember :D<strong>**

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><p><strong><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 &amp; The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI Records!****

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

Never in their life's have they dropped everything they were about to do and packed so fast before hopping on a plane to another country.

As soon as Ross told Brad what had happened to Connor and James, he literally jumped over the sofa and began to pack a bag to go back to England. Ross then got on the phone to Rydel because Tristan hadn't called her yet, and he explained everything to her and she did the same as Brad. Immediately dropped everything and packed a bag, getting the next flight out of LA and to England.

She didn't bother to bring Tyler and Matty with her because of the state Connor would more than likely be in, and that's not the sort of state Rydel wants them to see their Dad in. Well, one of their Dads. The last time she saw Connor was over a month and a half ago where he was all fine, happy smiles, and now he'll be half dead in a hospital.

What happened was that Connor and James were supposed to be going out with Tristan, and because they were both in the same place as each other James offered to drive Connor to where they were meeting Tristan. Unfortunately, they did not reach that destination due to a faulty accelerator and a lorry going way over the speed limit down a road. Needless to say, the car went for a flying lesson down the road they were on and it was bye, bye Connor Ball and James McVey.

This left Riker, Ellington and Rocky to look after Tyler and Matty between them all, as well as going to Ross and Brad's apartment to feed and walk Jesse because they weren't taking her to England with them. It would be Ellington that mainly did that, given he use to have two dogs of his own.

When Rydel, Ross and Brad got into England it was quite early in the morning so they decided to stay at the hotel until it was later and it was open for visitors. They had already let Tristan know that they were here and he said he would meet them outside the hospital at 9, maybe 9:30 at the latest.

They got there and found Tristan sat outside on a bench with his head in his hands. "Tristan!" Ross called, seen as though it didn't look like Rydel or Brad were going to.

Tristan lifted his head and looked over to where he saw Rydel, Ross and Brad coming towards them. He sighed in relief, getting up from the bench. He hadn't seen them all in nearly a year because he didn't have the time to go over to America and see them like Connor did, and neither did James. "Oh my, God. I didn't think you guys were actually going to show up," he said, giving them all a quick hug. He patted Brad on the shoulders "Nope, still haven't grown," he said, making Brad roll his eyes "I'm so glad you're all here. I don't think I could have handled all this on my own. Like, one minute they were on their way to meet me, then the next minute—actually, it was an hour later—I get a phone call telling me they were in a car accident! I was supposed to be with them yesterday as well when it happened, but something came up. I'm telling ya, that is some weird and scary Final Destination shit."

Rydel sighed, having a small smile form on her lips "You haven't changed at all have you, Tristan."

Tristan shook his head "Nope. Oh, and Brad, I told Natalie that you were coming because she's coming down soon. She said she's also bringing something for you. I don't know what though."

"Fair enough. Are we going in then or what?" Brad asked.

Tristan nodded "Oh, yeah, yeah, just follow me I know where I'm going."

Ross sighed, following after Rydel and Brad had followed Tristan into the hospital "I thought we got over hospital visits 2 years ago..." he muttered. That was the last time he was at a hospital. Not even when they were on their final world tour and Rocky fell off stage in Spain and split his head wide open. He couldn't perform for days, meaning James had to take his place and Ross had to play songs he didn't normally play on guitar.

You could tell Rocky wasn't happy about that.

When they walked through the hospital doors, Tristan didn't bother to go to the front desk and ask because the lady probably wouldn't tell them where their rooms are. She never yesterday and he had a repeat of when Rydel was giving birth to Tyler and Matty and himself, Connor and Brad ended up going round the entire hospital looking for Rydel's room.

She wouldn't tell him because he wasn't family, so he ended up having to journey through the hospital by himself as quick as he could.

They all entered the ward where Connor and James were supposed to be, but the last time Tristan was here they were both in the middle of having surgery and he had to leave. He hasn't been back since. "I will say, James is apparently worse off," Tristan explained, walking down the hallway with them "Connor's not as bad, but he got hurt pretty bad. They don't even, well didn't,think James was gonna make it. And... I hate to say this but, he might not have either. I had a missed call this morning from an unknown number. I didn't dare call back. I was too scared."

Rydel sighed, looking fearful and beginning to bite her nails from the nerves "I hope they're both okay. I don't know what I'll do if they die. Especially Connor. What am I supposed to tell Tyler and Matty when he doesn't come to see them?" She asked, beginning to panic. She'd been panicking ever since Tristan called yesterday, and she thinks she's been panicking a lot because even her stomachs hurting.

"Yeah, me either. I don't think I'll even know what to do with myself if Connor dies," Ross said, receiving a funny look off the other three "and James too. Jeez. I haven't seen him for nearly a year, same as Tris. Good thing the last time we saw James we all ended on a good note though. No? Okay? Sorry." Ross decided to shut up and walk on ahead as he wasn't making their confidence any better.

Rydel rolled her eyes "I'm sorry about him. He always says the wrong thing at the wrong time. He thinks he's cheering someone up, but he's not. Brad should know that more than any one," Rydel turned her head and saw Ross walking too far ahead "Ross! Wait! You're gonna get yourself lost!" she called, going after him as he turned round the corner.

"Either that, or what you told him has made him feel... weird shall we call it?" Tristan asked, looking at Brad who rolled his eyes. Tristan grinned a little "You haven't told him yet, have you?" Tristan asked, Brad shook his head "why not? The longer you leave it the worse it'll be when he does actually find out. And who knows, if he does find out, it might not be from your lips, it might be from someone else's or even worse. He could find out the way me and Connor found out, and you know he'll take it the wrong way and think something different like we did."

"Wasn't this subject dropped, like, 2 years ago?" Brad asked, walking away from Tristan as Ross and Rydel came up the hallway.

"Nearly lost him. Not that it would have been a shame." Rydel said, making Ross shove her playfully. But when he pushed her, she tripped over the lace on her shoe and ended up flat on the floor, making Ross burst out laughing. "OW!" She cried out.

Ross laughed "Oh my, God, Rydel! That was priceless! Are you alright?" he asked, holding out his hands. He grabbed her hands and helped her up, receiving a slap from her across the face.

"Glad you're all smiling and laughing." a voice said.

They all turned their heads, seeing a doctor stood there. Tristan saw her, seeing she was the doctor who told him everything about Connor and James. "Hey, doc, how are they? Are they alright?" Tristan asked, stepping forwards.

"Connor's fine, he's just resting and healing. But James..."

"You're kidding..." Brad said, feeling his knees go weak and feeling slightly queasy. He hadn't seen James in a year. A year. That couldn't have been the last time he saw him. Ross glanced to his right slightly and put his arm around Brad, pulling him closer to him as it looked like he was about to fall over from what the doctor was about to say.

The doctor sighed "I'm so sorry. I did tell you there was a huge chance he might not make it due to the amount of damage that was caused. We tried everything we could, but we got nothing. Even if he did make it, the outcome of his injuries wouldn't have been pleasant. He'd have been paralysed, and he looks like the guy who wouldn't enjoy being paralysed."

Tristan felt numb. He didn't know what to do or say, he didn't know whether to cry or assume that this was some sort of sick joke and he would walk through the doors and James would be lying there laughing. Rydel had tears spilling down her cheeks, Ross also didn't know what to do with himself and Brad was the same as Rydel, except he wasn't making any noises, just telling tears fall.

"Wait," Ross said, still having an arm around Brad "this isn't going to be like last time, right? Cos the last time this happened, the doctor told me he was dead," he nodded towards Brad "but then I got a phone call about an hour later telling me to come back to the hospital, and he was alive. They'd got it wrong. So er, maybe you could double check? Please?"

The doctor let out a soft laugh, still having a sympathetic look on her face. She found it sweet and sad that he had some hope left he was actually alive. She frowned and shook her head "I'm so sorry for your loss." she said before turning around and walking away.

At those words, Brad buried his head into Ross's chest and started crying properly. Ross sighed, rubbing his back "I know. It's not nice hearing those words..."

Rydel wiped her eyes, trying to stop the tears from falling but was failing "I think... I think I'm gonna go find a store. Or a bathroom. I need a tissue." She said, turning around and beginning to walk off.

Brad pulled away from Ross, sniffling "Yeah, I wanna go back to the hotel. I don't wanna stay here any longer."

"We only just got here though, and what about Connor?" Ross asked.

Brad shrugged "We'll come back later. Rydel's still here, so he has her if he wakes up. If he's not already awake. Please. I just wanna leave."

Ross sighed "I'll see you later Tristan." Ross said, beginning to walk down the hallway with Brad and having his arm draped over him. He even wiped away the tears on his face, and attempted to cheer Brad up in some way but failed.

At least that's what Tristan saw from where he stood. He sighed. He still doesn't see why Brad hasn't told him yet. It's obvious how much Ross loves him, anybody can see that. Tristan just doesn't see how that one thing from two years ago would make a difference. If anything it would make him either love him more, and if not, then he still wouldn't leave him.

He sighed and sat down on the chair that was against the wall.

Today had not kicked off to a great start.

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><p>They had gotten back to the hotel just over an hour ago, and when they returned that was when Brad started to grieve properly. Which made Ross begin to think he wanted to leave the hospital so he could let it out on his own without having people like Tristan and Rydel watch him. He'd feel plain awkward and embarrassed. Even though he knows Rydel was on the verge of breaking down.<p>

Tristan on the other hand, looked like he didn't even know what hit him.

Luckily Ross was alert after he shut the hotel door and caught Brad just as he burst into tears and fell to the floor. Honestly, Ross wanted to cry too but he wanted to do it in his own time. Sure, he and James weren't exactly close but they still got on. And it was sad. But it wasn't like he didn't know what it was like to lose someone close to him. After all, Laura did die unexpectedly also when she got shot down 2 and a half years ago, and he almost lost Brad to the exact thing a few months later.

So maybe Ross can help Brad out with this loss so he doesn't do anything stupid, like Ross almost did.

Right now, Ross sat at the edge of the bed in the hotel room by himself because Brad said he needed some fresh air and some time to himself after today, which is understandable. Ross needed some time to himself as well. But he preferred it when someone, aka Brad, was there with him.

He didn't know how to feel right now. All he was doing was staring at the same spot in front of him, and had been for the past fifteen minutes. He was thinking about calling Rydel and asking her if she had been to see Connor yet, but she looked pretty upset about James so he highly doubts she has. Ross ran his hand through his hair, deciding he might just go to sleep for a bit. But when he stood up from the edge of the bed, there was a knock at the hotel room door.

Ross sighed heavily and dragged himself over to the door. He opened it up "Oh, hey Natalie." He said, seeing Brad's sister there.

Natalie smiled at him sympathetically "I heard what happened with James. I called Brad about half an hour ago. Is he here?" She asked, letting herself in.

Ross shut the door "Um, no. He said he needed some fresh air. I think he might have gone back to the hospital though, he's taking a while. I don't know. He's pretty unpredictable some times."

Natalie nodded in agreement. She rolled back and forth on her feet "To think, if Brad had have died from that shooting all those years ago, there'd be three people together, rather than two." She said.

Ross let a small smile show "Yeah, but sometimes two is better than one so, lets not go there," Ross said, not liking how she was talking about the possibility of Brad's death from when he got shot. He rubbed his arms, letting his eyes wonder when he saw something in Natalie's hands "What's with the box?" He asked.

It was only a small box, so nothing major could be in it. Natalie looked down to her hands "Oh, yeah! I forgot about this almost. Brad left it behind when he moved to America 2 years ago, I was gonna give it to him but he's not here."

"I'll take it if you want. It's not like I'm not gonna see him."

Natalie looked down at the box and shrugged "Sure." She handed it to Ross.

"What's in it anyway?" Ross asked, going to take the lid off.

"No! Don't open it!" Natalie said, making Ross jump and slam the lid back on "it's got pictures in there from a long time ago, meaning when Brad was young. You know what he's like when it comes to people he knows seeing pictures of him from when he was 15 or younger."

Ross nodded "True. But then, again, I find it hilarious the way he goes on so..."

"Ross," Natalie groaned "he'll kill you. You know he doesn't like it, mainly because you whind him up the most. Jesus Ross, you're married to him. You're supposed to love him not make him feel bad."

"Oh, wow. Guilt trip," Ross said, bemused and Natalie smiled at him sarcastically. "Yeah, whatever, I won't look."

"Promise me?"

Ross walked over to the drawers in the hotel room and placed the box on there, walking over to the edge of the bed "Promise." He said, holding up his hands.

Natalie gave him a suspicious look "I don't believe you... but I'm gonna trust you with it anyway. I'll see you later, tell Brad I popped by and I'll see him later or tomorrow." She said, going towards the door.

Ross waved her off and waited till the door was closed before falling back onto the bed with a sigh. He stared at the ceiling for a while before sitting up and looking over at the box sat on the drawers. He smirked to himself "Like hell I'm not gonna look at them."

Ross jumped up from the bed as quick as he could and grabbed the box, tossing off the lid onto the bed. He put his hand into the box to get the pictures out of it, but ended up putting his hand in that fast that it knocked the box out of his hand and all the pictures went onto the floor. "Shit." He mumbled, getting on his hands and knees to pick them up.

Someone really didn't want Ross to see these pictures. Unless it was James starting his ghost karma against Ross, as of now.

That was sick.

Ross made a mental note to never say that in front of anybody that was close with James.

He picked up every single picture that fell onto the floor, looking at them as he done so and either laughed or smiled at each one. Ross put all the pictures back into the box and went to put the lid back on the box, but something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned his head and saw another picture, or something, on the floor a short distance away from him.

He quickly crawled over to the picture like a baby and picked it up. The back of it was white, having _Bradley Will Simpson _written on it in pen by somebody else. Obviously a woman. Or a girl.

"Oh this should be good..."

Ross turned it over to look at the picture and his eyes nearly fell out of his socket "Oh my, God."

Ross turned it over, making sure it did say Brad's name on the back of it and it was his and it wasn't something that had been dropped by the person who previously had this room. But no. It was Brad's. Definitely Brad's. He stood up from the floor looking at it and reading the date on the front of it.

He felt his heart sink all the way to his stomach, because it was the date of when they were still together 2 years ago. Or maybe it was the date of when they had broken up for a while, but got back together. But it still wasn't the point. They only broke up for three weeks. This was for something that wasn't three weeks old. This was a month and a half old, from when it had been taken.

Why would Brad have done this to him? He thought they were happy together back then.

Well, they weren't because Brad and James had kissed so he had cheated on him.

But it looked like he had cheated again, but before that. With some slut.

Why else would he have an ultrasound? Because it definitely wasn't Natalie's as a spare for Brad for his niece or nephew because she doesn't have kids.

And it definitely wasn't Rydel's because there would be two babies on it if that was the case. Even then, Rydel didn't give him one.

As Tristan thought earlier in the hospital.

Today had not started out as a good day, and it was about to get worse.

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><p><strong>Dun. Dun. Duuuuuuunnnn.<strong>

**I feel like I could have written that better. I don't know if you were expecting Ross to stumble across that or not as soon as Natalie gave him the famous box from the last chapter of MELA. Eh, oh well.**

**YAY!**

**Thanks for reading! :D**

**QUESTIONS FOR REVIEWS:**

**Thoughts on Ellington & Rocky having to babysit Tyler & Matty?**

**Thoughts on Tristan?**

**Thoughts on James's death?**

**Thoughts on Rad in this chapter?**

**Were you guys expecting Ross to find that at the end?**

**What do you think will happen next?**

**PLEASE REVIEW!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Well... Only three of you got what happened in the last chapter correct. One of you already knew, the other is half way there and the other guessed it straight off the top of her head. As for the others, I'm not complaining bc it means you're more shocked when it gets revealed, but you got it wrong. But whatever. We'll see how you react in a few chapters time, shall we? ;)**

**Oh, and I've also discovered every time The Vamps go to the USA their favourite word to use it "Rad". It's not okay regarding the circumstances that word now has to me and you guys.**

**Guest Account Replies:**

**TheVampsR5SOS: **There's no Rockliff in this story unfortunately, bc I've took the Rockliff out of it due to the fact I didn't want it to be happening any more.

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><p><strong><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 &amp; The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI Records!****

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><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

He went out for a walk because he needed some fresh air after what had happened and because he felt sick.

How the hell he ended back at the hospital, Brad will never know. He didn't want to be there any more because it was the place where bad things happened. 2 years ago, and now James dying there. But, the 2 years ago thing wasn't really a bad thing. He got over it within the first week, and all that he had left to worry about was everyone's reactions. AKA Ross. James already knew because he was there. He sighed, he really needed James here to talk to now. He always talked to him about things he worried about and always told him everything. And now he doesn't have that person in his life any more.

Now he knows how Ross felt after Laura had died.

She was the person Ross ran to every time he had a worry or needed to tell her something, and then she died. James was the person Brad always ran to every time he had a worry or needed to tell him something important, and now he's dead.

It's like history's repeating itself all over again.

He pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to Ross, telling he had ended up back at the hospital and that he should come down if he wanted too. It took a while for Ross to reply. Maybe he'd fallen asleep, he did look pretty tired back in the hotel room. Brad wanted to go to sleep, but ended up going for a walk instead.

When he got back to the ward they were on before everyone left, he saw Rydel and Tristan both sat there with blank expressions, talking quietly. Rydel turned her head when she heard light footsteps "Hey, where's Ross?" She asked, standing up and letting out a small hiss as she done so. Again, her stomach was killing her.

Brad gave Rydel a funny look, hearing the hiss she let out of her mouth as well as almost falling back into her chair "Er, he should be coming now. Are you alright?" Brad asked.

Rydel nodded "Yeah, it's just a bit of a stomach ache. I've erm, been having them ever since Ross called me yesterday. I don't know why. Probably from all the panic," she paused "or probably because I didn't have breakfast his morning... I should really go get something."

"I agree."

Tristan cocked his head, leaning forwards on the chair as he looked at Rydel "Are you sure you're okay, Rydel?" Tristan asked.

Rydel turned around and nodded "Yeah, why?" She asked.

"Because you're bleeding..."

Rydel looked down to see where she was bleeding, seeing a drop of blood on the floor from someone "A-are you sure it's from me?" She asked.

Tristan nodded "Yeah, I just saw it drop from your trousers."

Suddenly, Rydel started shaking. She didn't know why either, and she felt very light headed too, which wasn't good. She rubbed her head, as the dizziness started to give her a headache. Why and where was she bleeding? She didn't accidentally cut herself. Especially down there.

Rydel didn't have much more time to think about it because the next thing she knew everything went black and the last thing she felt was someone's arms catching her before she could hit the floor.

Dogs hate him.

They genuinely hate him, yet he's had two dogs himself all his life. Yes, they live with his Mom and Dad but he still takes them for walks and treats them like he use to when he didn't live by himself.

Though, Jesse was different to his dogs and every dog is different. For instance, Jesse likes showing Ellington up by not listening to him every time he lets her off the lead, or by doing her business in places she shouldn't and when he's ran out of bags to pick it up with. It's a good thing she makes up for it by being cute.

He got into Ross and Brad's apartment, watching as Jesse ran over to the couch and jumped on it, making herself comfy. Ellington shut the door and threw the lead on the table "You, girl, are the reason why some people aren't dog people." Ellington said before going over and sitting on the couch next to her, giving her a stroke on her head.

How the hell Ross and Brad managed to control her perfectly, he does not know.

But taking Jesse out for a walk, Ellington saw and spoke to someone very, very interesting. Someone who he hadn't seen for a very, very, very long time. Surprisingly, the person wasn't being an ass hole. He was being genuinely nice, which made Ellington think that it wasn't actually him and that he has a secret nice twin. But when they spoke, he said something that threw Ellington way off. He didn't have chance to respond to it either because he left afterwards.

It was weird.

Ellington took his phone out of his pocket, seeing a recent missed call off Ross. He sighed. This meant he had to call Ross back, and it was probably going to cost given the fact he's in the UK and Ellington's in America. He clicked the call back button, and it rang a couple of times before Ross picked up "Alright, time is the amount of money I'm gonna have to pay for my phone bill right now, so this better be good and quick."

Ross took the phone away from his ear from the aggressiveness in Ellington's voice "Okay, calm down. Someone's not happy."

"Yeah, well, your frickin' dog is a nightmare."

"_Brad's_ dog, Ellington." Ross corrected him.

"So fuck. She loves showing me up. And I've only been looking after her for half a night and half a day. That's why I'm not happy."

Ross rolled his eyes "Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm not happy either. In fact, happy's not even the word. Because the next time I see a certain person, he's gonna wish that bullet killed him all those years ago."

Ellington's eyes widened "Whoa. Harsh, Ross. What's he done? Did he not please you in the right places?" Ellington asked, making a bemused silence take over the phone. "I'm sorry, I had to. But seriously, why are you saying things like that for? You don't mean it. I know you don't. So tell me why you're acting like a baby for."

"Because he has a baby."

Ellington sat up straight on the couch "What?" Ellington asked, not being sure if he had heard Ross correctly "he has a baby? How does he have a baby? Ross, what the hell have you done to him?"

"I haven't done anything to him! It's what he's done to me!"

"He's done to you?" Ellington questioned "well, that is a surprise. When's it due Ross?"

"I'm gonna slap you so hard when I get back."

"Sorry! Jeez. Take a joke. Explain it to me properly and I won't make these type of jokes."

"Basically, his sister came round with this box he'd left behind two years ago before he moved over to America with me, and when I opened it there were pictures in there of him and other people from a while ago. But I opened it in a hurry and everything fell out onto the floor, so I picked them all up one by one and there was another left on the floor. I crawled over and picked it up, seeing it was an ultrasound with his name on it."

"And?"

"And?! Do you know what an ultrasound is?!"

Ellington rolled his eyes "Yes, Ross, I'm not stupid. Maybe a friend gave it to him or something, or a family member. It doesn't necessarily mean it's his."

"Dude, in the ultrasound the baby's nearly a month and a half old. That's if I read it right. And the date is from two years ago, about 2 weeks after we had broken up for that short amount of time. Meaning, he obviously slept with someone else, got them pregnant, and they had the ultrasound that day and gave it to him."

Ellington furrowed his eye brows suspiciously "Ross... you're being ridiculous."

"I'm not being ridiculous at all!"

Ellington nodded "Yes, yes you are. You're forgetting something. You're forgetting details from back then Ross," Ellington said "for at least 2 months before you two broke up, Brad was in America."

"And?"

"And... if he was in England on the day the ultrasound was taken for a month and a half old baby, wouldn't that mean the ultrasound was taken in America? Because if I remember correctly Ross, he wasn't in England for at least 2 months. And also... He spent every single day with you. How could he have possibly cheated on you? Ask yourself that."

"I don't... I... what?" Ross asked, starting to become confused.

"Exactly. So, he's obviously got it from a family member that was pregnant with his niece, nephew or baby cousin. I know Natalie doesn't have kids, so that rules the niece and nephew out of it... That makes it a baby cousin from an aunt or uncle. It's a good thing you have me around to stop you from ruining your marriage, isn't it?"

Ross sighed, feeling slightly relieved yet still suspicious at the same time "Y-yeah... I guess so. But... why wouldn't he have told me if he was getting a baby cousin or not..? I don't understand. Do you think there's something more too it..?"

"Well, unless his names on the actual picture, then... if I were you, I'd start asking questions. But it's not. It's written in pen on the back, isn't it?" Ellington asked, remembering Ross had told him his name was written in pen on the back.

Ross nodded "Yeah... but... it has his full name on it. If a family member wrote his name on the back, it would have just said 'Brad'. His family isn't exactly the type that would use his full name on a bit of paper, the only person that used his full name was his Grandma and I'm pretty sure people over the age of 80 can't have babies. It's in girls handwriting as well..."

"That is weird and suspicious... If I were you, I'd ask him about it."

"Yeah, I will. I'm outside the hospital now. Might as well go in there, find him and then ask him."

Ellington looked up thoughtfully "I'll tell you what is weird and suspicious though..."

"What?"

"I took Jesse for a walk today, and I ran into someone..."

Ross sat down on a near by bench "Who did you run into?" he asked.

"Titus."

"What? What did he say?"

"Nothing much. He was being nice. Said hello, asked how I was doing, and how everyone else was doing. And then... he asked me how you are and if you were okay ever since the incident with Brad and if you had moved on yet." Ellington said.

Ross furrowed his brow "Moved on from what? What incident?" he asked.

"When Brad got shot outside the diner. That incident. I asked him what he meant by it and he thinks Brad's dead. Obviously he didn't get the memo about it, and he'll have a shock if he see's him again."

Ross laughed "I'd love to see his face when he does. But after what he did to Rydel, I don't want to see his face again because I might just break it."

"Understandable. If it wasn't for the fact I had Jesse with me, I'd have broke him there and then. I never got the chance to when he did it the first time and she told us. Heck, did any of us?" Ellington asked thoughtfully. He shook his head "Doesn't matter, I'll let you go."

"See you when I get back." Ross said before hanging up the phone.

He slid his phone into his pocket and stared in front of him for a few moments, practically feeling the picture of whose-ever baby that is on the ultrasound burning a hole in his pocket. The reason he has it in his pocket is so that when Brad looks in the box later, and realises it's missing, his face will be a picture and he'll have to explain everything to him.

Ross is so confused right now about this. Especially after that phone call with Ell. Now he has no clue about the ultrasound and who it originally belongs too.

"Ross!"

Ross turned his head, seeing Tristan jogging towards him. "You need to come quick, it's Rydel. She collapsed."

Ross jumped up from the bench as soon as Tristan said that, beginning to walk with him inside the hospital quickly "Collapsed? Why?"

"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me. I didn't believe it either, but it's true."

"Test me."

"She had a miscarriage."

Ross stopped in his tracks as they entered the hospital "A miscarriage?" Ross questioned, Tristan nodded "how could she have a miscarriage when she's not even dating anybody?" Ross asked, Tristan shrugged "Oh my, God. What is it with this day and its obsession with death and babies?"

"I don't—babies?"

Ross nodded "Yeah, it's a long story. But it's not important. Rydel's important. Now go." he said, shoving Tristan so he would lead the way to wherever Rydel was.

Rydel moved around where she laid, beginning to open up her eyes. When she opened her eyes, she found herself laid in a hospital bed, in a room by herself. She sat up and looked around more, jumping when she saw Brad sat next to her "Whoa, what the heck happened?" Rydel asked, confused "did... did I pass out or something?"

Brad nodded "Y-yeah... you passed out from the loss of blood."

Rydel furrowed her brow "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, trust me on this one, I know what the loss of blood looks and feels like."

Rydel nodded, lying back down "True. What was the loss of blood from? I don't remember cutting myself by accident."

Brad went to go say something but got his words stuck in his throat, not knowing what exactly to say to Rydel about her having a miscarriage to a baby she probably had no idea about. Even if she did, she's going to be heartbroken. He's heard the words come from someone else's mouth before, which was a while ago, and even they struggled to say it. Now he knows what it feels like trying to tell someone they lost a baby.

How do you even say it?

_Oh, by the way, the reason you were having bad stomach cramps and bleeding a little bit is because the life span of the thing that was growing inside you just shorted by about 90 years._

That's the Tristan way of saying it. Does Brad really want to try the Tristan way? Not really.

"Um, Rydel... Did you erm, know you were pregnant by any chance?" Brad asked, even though he knew it was a stupid and obvious question and answer.

Rydel felt her entire body go numb "Y-yeah... why..?"

Brad puffed his cheeks, letting air out slowly "How do I say it without having to say the word?" He asked, even though by the look on Rydel's face she knew but she needed it confirming at the same time to make sure it was what she was thinking. Brad didn't really know how to say it, so he decided to say it the way the person he last heard say it.

But it was a very big mistake.

"You're no longer pregnant..?" Brad asked "so, congratulations! You don't have to go through what you would have had to!" Brad said, cheerily, and his face dropped when he realised "hang on, no... That's what she said to—never mind. Oh my, God, Rydel, I'm so sorry! I never meant to say that! I was just going off what someone else said, because... I honestly didn't want to say the word and make it more upsetting than it already is."

Rydel wiped her eyes, letting out a soft laugh "It's okay. I know you didn't mean it," she finished wiping her eyes, trying not to cry any more "wait... when did you hear them words?"

"Oh, it was when—oh shit." Brad put his head into his hands, realising he shouldn't have said anything at all. He should have just said: _Unfortunately, you had a miscarriage. _But no, he wanted to be clever and make it less sad.

Karma.

As Rydel went to go say something the door to the room opened where he saw Ross and Tristan come in. Tristan stood at the end of the bed whilst Ross came over to the edge of the bed "Oh my, God, Rydel, are you alright?" he asked, giving her a hug "Tristan told me what happened. How long have you been pregnant for?"

Rydel shrugged "About a month and a half."

_Of course. _Ross thought to himself. "Like... How?" He asked, sitting on the edge of the bed "I mean, I know _how_, but... how?! I mean... you're not even dating anybody. You know, unless it was a one night stand. Was it a one night stand?" he asked.

Rydel nodded, even though it was a complete lie.

"With who?" Brad asked, finding it suspicious.

Rydel moved shiftily in the bed "Well, Connor was visiting—"

"Oh my, God," Brad flopped back into the chair "why did I even ask? But, go on."

"And we decided to go out for the night, because my parents were looking after Tyler and Matty, and well... we may have got a little bit tipsy and, you can guess what happened next." She explained, lying right through her front teeth.

If she'd had known she was this good of an actress, she'd have considered it as a career way before R5.

Tristan leaned on the bed a little bit "I'm gonna ask you a question, Rydel. And it's a question I am sick of asking certain people," Tristan said, sending a small glare over to Brad which both Ross and Brad noticed. He looked back to Rydel "does he know?"

Rydel shook his head. Tristan sighed "Of course he doesn't."

Ross turned his attention back to Rydel "Why doesn't he know? Why haven't you told him yet?" Ross asked.

Rydel shrugged "I-I don't know... I'm, well was, too scared, you know? To see his reaction. I mean, what if he had a bad one?"

"Rydel, this is Connor we're talking about he wouldn't have a bad reaction if _I_ turned up on his door step and said I was pregnant with his child," Ross said "besides, you've both been there before. You're forgetting that Connor is the father of Tyler. I don't think him being the father of another child of yours would make a difference. Even though, you miscarried it. And even though you did, he still deserves to know. You can't hide it. The longer you hide it the worse it'll be."

"B-but... there's no baby any more... there's no point. And he's just been in a car accident, his best friends just died... I don't think he needs more horrible news for when he wakes up." Rydel said, getting sadder and sadder as each minute passed.

"It's not the point Rydel. He deserves to know, whether or not if you're still pregnant." Brad said.

Tristan nearly choked on the saliva in his mouth "I'm sorry, Brad, say that again, I think I might have misheard _that_."

"Okay, ignore him," Ross said, pointing towards Tristan "and listen to me and Brad. He needs to know. I'd want to know if I was Connor. Or if I was in his position. Regardless if it was after you had a miscarriage. As long as I knew. I wouldn't care, well, I would care because it's a baby. Jesus, no baby deserves to die. What I mean is that, I wouldn't be angry. Even if you left it for a few months, or a year at the most before you told me. Seriously, I'd be as calm as I could about it. And considering it is a sensitive topic, and many people go through it, I'd have to be."

"He's got an excellent point." Tristan said, making Rydel sigh.

Brad stood up from his chair "I'm gonna go see if Connor's woken up yet."

Ross watched him "Why? He wasn't awake 2 hours ago, and hasn't been awake since he came out of surgery."

Brad shrugged, getting closer to the door "It doesn't hurt to try."

"Yeah, but all I'm saying is that I don't think he's going to be awake for a while..."

"Well, then, I'll wonder around for a bit." He said before exiting the room, with the door falling harshly shut behind him.

Tristan sighed heavily "I'll go see to him. He's just being a bitch because he's the worlds biggest hypocrite." He said, going towards the door.

"What do you mean?" Rydel asked.

Tristan looked at her, and shook his head before going after Brad. Rydel looked up to Ross who had his eyes locked on the door "What's wrong? I don't understand... has something happened?"

"Lets just say it's all about to kick off."

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><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed the chapter :)<strong>

**QUESTIONS:**

**Thoughts on Ellington looking after Jesse?**

**Thoughts on Ross & Ellington's conversation?**

**Thoughts on Titus' return-ish?**

**Thoughts on Brad trying to tell Rydel about her miscarriage?**

**Thoughts on Rydel lying & why you think she's lying?**

**Thoughts on the way Ross is acting now?**

**PLEASE REVIEW! :D**


	4. The Wrong Person

**Hey, hey, hey! Sorry for not updating The New Yesterday, yesterday (pardon the pun) but I was so exhausted. Wednesdays at school tire me out so much. But don't worry, I'll update it on Saturday seen as though nothing gets updated then. I'm also supposed to be updating Five Nights At Freddy's tonight, but I don't think I have enough time. I might do. I'll see :)**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter & congrats to the people who got Brad's secret correct so far ;) **

**Enjoy & remember to answer the questions at the end of the chapter!**

**Guest Account Replies:**

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><p><strong>TheVampsR5SOS: <strong>Ross doesn't know about that. He thinks something different.

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><p><strong><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 &amp; The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI Records!****

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><p><strong>Chapter 4<br>**_The Wrong Person_**  
><strong>

His head hurt.

It felt like someone had him by the scruff of his hair, holding onto it tightly and kept on repeatedly smashing it off a brick wall. It felt like it was moving, even though he knew it was laid peacefully on something soft. Probably the car seat of the car the lorry smashed into. If not, then he's probably dead and laid on a soft cloud up in the sky. But if he's in heaven, why is his head hurting so much? Shouldn't the pain have gone away?

Unless someone up there really hates him.

"Connor..?"

Connor groaned, not opening his eyes cause that hurt too "Am I dead?" He asked.

"No..."

"It feels like it..."

"Well, having a lorry crash into the side of your car, which causes the car to go for a flying lesson down the motorway... I'm gonna guess that it hurts like hell."

"Shut up, Brad. You wouldn't know pain if it hit you in the face and—wait," Connor finally opened up his eyes and was nearly blinded by the big white shining light above his bed. He hissed in pain and shut them again before slowly re-opening them "what the hell are you doing here?" Connor asked "did the crash send us back in time or something..?"

Brad let out a small laugh, forgetting about how Connor could easily amuse him no matter what type of situation they were in. He shook his head "No, no. We're still in the same time. The day after your car crash to be exact," Brad said, seeing Connor's face fall to worry "you're fine though, just a couple cracked and bruised ribs, cuts, more bruises. You're basically made of steel after what happened. But, everything's fine. Well... to a certain extent..."

Connor stared at him confused "What do you mean..?" He asked.

Brad sighed, looking down and debating on which news to tell him first. Rydel and the baby, or James. He scratched his head nervously "Rydel's here..." Brad said, seeing an immediate smile start to form on Connor's lips "but..." he froze again and sighed "look, she told me what happened the last time you were in America."

Connor raised his eye brows, now becoming more confused "What?" He asked, which Brad mistaken for Connor being shocked that he knew about it.

Brad nodded "Yes, don't worry. Honestly, I'm not surprised it happened. It's you two for crying out loud."

Connor blinked a few times "You've lost me."

Brad rolled his eyes "I know about you and Rydel sleeping together for yet _another_ one night stand," Brad said, making Connor look in different directions in the room in confusement "but that one night stand got her pregnant. Again. But, unfortunately... she had a miscarriage, which I had to break to her seen as though there was no nurse in the room."

Connor held up his hand as a signal for Brad to shut up. He let silence take over before frowning "Aw... I feel sorry for her..."

"Her?" Brad questioned "you should be feeling sorry for yourself too."

Connor turned his head to Brad, scrunching up his face in confusement "Yeah, hate to break it to you and crush your dreams, Brad... but... the last time I slept with Rydel, was – how do I put this? – when Tyler was created."

Brad's face fell "What..? You didn't sleep with her?" Brad asked, Connor shook his head "oh my, God... So that means she slept with someone else... But, why did she use you as an excuse?"

Connor shrugged "Maybe because she doesn't want you to know the real father of the baby and she thought that you wouldn't tell me," Connor said, making Brad shrug like it was debatable "jeez... Can't trust you with secrets can we?" Connor asked, Brad glared at him knowing where this was about to go. Connor's lips twitched to grin "Oh, wait a minute. We can... And how ironic too... Given the secret, and what's happened to Rydel."

"If you're gonna start throwing that in my face, I'll just leave right now."

"Alright, calm down, I won't. Just as long as you tell me the answer I wanna hear to this question," Connor said, Brad became nervous because he knew Connor was going to get the answer he didn't want "have you told Ross?" he asked. Brad shook his head. "It's been two years, Brad. Come on. I'm sure he's mature enough to handle it. Besides, you can't keep running from it every time someone mentions it to you because he's going to find out eventually. Whether if it's on his own, from you, from me, Tristan or James or from someone you really don't want to tell him."

"I get the point. You want me to tell him, Tristan wants me to tell him. Everyone who knows wants me to tell him. But I can't, it's too late. Two years too late. And now look where we are." Brad said, getting frustrated and placing his head into his hands.

Connor sighed, looking away from Brad and getting lost in thought for a moment. He turned his head back to Brad "You know, I think if you look up the definition of hypocrite in the dictionary, Bradley Simpson will come up."

"Really? Seriously?" Brad asked, snapping his head up.

"Hey, you just came and told me Rydel was pregnant with my baby – and she's not – and obviously she told you because she thought you weren't going to come tell me. She trusted you. The same way you trusted me, James and Tristan. We didn't go blabbing our mouths to Ross when—"

"Alright, shut up Connor, quiet down."

Connor rolled his eyes, quietening his voice "All I'm saying is that you trusted us. You didn't expect us to run and tell Ross, and we never. Now you just broke Rydel's trust. That's like breaking mine. Now, that gives Rydel the right to tell Ross except she doesn't know. That's the problem."

"You know what. I'm going, I can't be done with this." Brad said, getting up and making his way to the door.

"Oh, yeah, that's right Brad, you runaway from it like you have been for a while now and I think it's about time you stopped. But whatever. Your choice," Connor said, raising his voice as Brad got closer and closer to the door "besides, Rydel's going to need someone there with her who's been through a miscarriage before to help support her." Connor sneered.

Brad clapped his hands together "Okay, fair enough. Alright. Good one Connor, good one. Points for you. Oh by the way, did I forget to tell you? James is dead because of that car crash," Brad said, making Connor's face fall. Brad turned around and got ready to open the door when he stopped "It's a shame, because it's the wrong person that died." his voice shook as he said that, with tears clinging to the edge of his eye lids before he left the room, slamming it behind him.

He felt bad for wishing that upon Connor, but he pissed him off and used the worst thing he possibly could against him. Brad can only imagine what Connor feels like inside there after he said that. He probably doesn't even want to speak to Brad any more. He wouldn't blame him.

He's so sick of Tristan and Connor doing this to him every time they see him, it makes him want to rip his hair out but now all he wants to do is break down and cry.

Brad wiped his eyes to try and prevent himself from crying so he could go back to Ross and Rydel in the room they were in without being questioned. He turned around and began to walk back the way he came. When he got to the end of the corridor, there were already tears falling down his face and he turned the corner where he ended up colliding into someone. He looked up to apologise to the person, but saw it was Ross staring down at him in confusion.

Ross grabbed him by both arms gently "What's wrong? Why are you crying?" He asked worried, even though he was trying his best to be mad at him. But seeing Brad hurt and upset made him worry and want to hurt the person who made him upset.

Even though, the person who's hurt him is dead so... that'd be difficult.

That just proves he loves him too much to stay mad at him. Especially when it comes down to something like what he's done to Ross behind his back.

Brad shook his head, his lip starting to quiver as he bit back the tears "I-it's nothing... Me and C-Connor we er... doesn't matter," he said, resting his forehead against Ross's chest. He sniffled "Ross... I need to tell you something. But... can I tell you when we get back home in America?" he asked.

Ross sighed, resting his head on top of Brad's head and wrapped his arms around him gently "Yeah, of course you can. Take all the time you need," he kissed the top of his head and held him as he began to sob "it's alright. It's okay..." he whispered soothingly.

Even though he knew it was far from.

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><p><strong>Sorry this chapter was so short, but all that's next is a time skip &amp; I don't think it was right to do a time skip in this chapter :)<strong>

**Thanks for reading!**

**PLease answer these questions:**

**Thoughts on Connor when he FIRST woke up at the start of the chapter?**

**Do you think Connor's right about telling Ross?**

**Thoughts on Brad wishing Connor had died instead of James?**

**Have you figured out what the secret with brad was yet?**

**Thoughts on Brad finally going to open up to Ross about his secret?**

**Thoughts on Ross loving Brad too much to stay mad at him over something as serious at what he THINKS is Brad's secret?**

_**PLEASE REVIEW**_


	5. The Secrets Out

**So, who went to the Radio Disney Birthday thing or saw pictures/videos of it? I saw pictures and that's about it. R5 & The Vamps were there together akjffvnjdckmk. I was gonna update this on the day, but I was like "nah, not if they're meeting". They did meet. AND THEY WERE GONNA DO A FREAKING SONG TOGETHER BUt The Vamps' microphones wouldn't work. SERIOUSLY. James went to go sing the bit he was supposed to sing, but his microphone didn't work & neither did Connor or Brads. Tristan played his drum bit tho, still, like, c'mon Radio Disney, what kinda fuckery is that. Even if they did do a collab it would have been Best Day of My Life by American Authors, and to be honest... when R5 did that song on the Sirius Hits radio, it was mainly Ross singing & we all know it would have been Brad or Connor or both from The Vamps to have sang and yeah. Rad. Whatever. But, we didn't really get a Rad interaction (at least of what I know so far) but buT BUT we did get a sort of Connor/Rydel one? Would you call it an interaction? Idk. I'll let you judge it for yourselves. The Vamps posted a picture of R5 on stage & everyone else on stage with them & Connor was like, in front of her keyboard with James... Yeah.**

**But on the plus side, The Vamps & R5 DID hang out last night & there's pictures on James' twitter (TheVampsJames) ahfhhjdhjdhjhjds xh**

**No pictures of Rad though. Not yet anyway ;)**

**But yeah, enough of the R5 & The Vamps almost collab lets get on with the story.**

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><p><strong><strong><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 &amp; The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI Records!******

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><p><strong>Chapter 5<br>**_The Secrets Out_

**2 Weeks Later**

After that day in the hospital when James died, Rydel had her miscarriage and Connor woke up, Brad and Connor hadn't spoke since. Rydel, Ross and Tristan had noticed but didn't dare try to question them on it.

The day after when everyone was going back to the hospital to visit Connor and get Rydel out, Ross asked Brad if he wanted to go see him but he gave a simple, flat out 'no'. Ross asked him why, but Brad wouldn't say. Obviously another secret Ross would have to find out eventually. Like the one Brad is supposed to be telling him when they get back into America.

Well guess what.

They're back in America and he still hasn't told him.

They had been back since yesterday, and when they got back Ross asked Brad if he was going to tell him what he wanted to tell him and he kept blowing it off saying he'd tell him later and go do something else. Ross wants to say that he's still getting over James, given that his funeral was a few days ago and they obviously went to it, but he doesn't think so. Sure, it might have something to do with it but it's something else as well.

He also wants to blame it on some sickness Brad had managed to catch off someone whilst over there, but he doesn't see why being ill would stop him from telling Ross.

Connor had came back to America with them too because he hadn't seen Tyler and Matty in a while, despite his parents protesting because of his injuries from the crash. He didn't even tell them when he would return to England. Honestly, he didn't know himself either. He asked if Tristan was going to come with him, but Tristan said he couldn't because he didn't have enough money, but when he does he'd be straight over on the next flight. He hopes he will be too, because nothing would be the same without Tristan.

For now, Connor was staying in a hotel until someone – Brad or Rydel – were nice enough to realise Connor can't keep paying for a hotel room until he leaves and let him stay at their's. But, he'd rather Rydel ask because he and Brad aren't speaking. Tristan asked him why, and Connor told him, he didn't tell Ross or Rydel when they asked. No matter how tempted he was to tell Rydel why they weren't talking, he couldn't do it to Brad.

Even if he did wish he was dead over James. Connor knows he didn't mean it, in fact Connor brought it on himself by throwing things in Brad's face that he shouldn't have. Especially that. That was out of order and sick. It must have been the worst thing Connor has ever said in his life.

He felt bad.

Ellington rolled his eyes "Oh my, God, Ross. Piss off!"

"Well he should have told me by now!"

"Maybe he's nervous!"

Now Ross rolled his eyes "What? Nervous to tell me he knocked another girl up whilst we were dating?"

"Ross, how many times do I have to say this. You are being ridiculous. He spent every single day with you in that time the ultrasound is from. YOU. How could he have possibly have done that? What? Did he do it by looking a girl in the eyes and POOF she spat out a baby?" Ellington asked, starting to bring out the sass because they had been on the phone for at least fifteen minutes and they were getting no where.

Ross rubbed his face "I don't know why I come to you in times like these. All you do is sass me."

"Yeah, when you're being ridiculous. I am actually placing money on this right now, an actual bet. I bet you twenty dollars the ultrasound is not from some slut he slept with. Because the only slut he's slept with... is you. Now, BYE!" Ellington shouted 'bye' before hitting the hang up button so hard his thumb could have snapped.

Ross shook his head and put his phone down on the table before hearing the door beginning to be unlocked, which meant Brad was home from taking Jesse out for a walk. He was going to question him now and get an answer out of him, because for the past two weeks this has been killing him inside.

Brad got in and shut the door behind him "Hey." he smiled at him, beginning to let Jesse off her lead.

"Hey." Ross said, rubbing his hands together that were becoming sweaty, watching as Jesse jumped up on the couch and made herself comfy. For some reason Ross felt nervous about asking Brad when he shouldn't be.

Brad hung up the lead on the wall and turned around, seeing Ross in some sort of trance "Is everything okay..?" he asked.

Ross snapped out the trance "Hmm? Yeah. Everything's... great. I just got off the phone to er, Ellington."

"Oh, okay. What did he want?"

"Nothing. Just... general talk, really. You know, I haven't seen him in two weeks."

"Fair enough," Brad then let out a small laugh "I can't believe she did that today." He said, looking over to Jesse as a memory came back to him. Ross looked at Jesse and back to Brad, waiting for an answer. "There was this baby in a pushchair—"

"Of course there was."

"What?" Brad asked, not seeing where that came from. It was a little weird. Then again, Ross had been acting weird ever since they had gotten into England.

Ross shook his head, folding his arms "Nothing. Continue."

Brad nodded "Right... As I was saying... There was this baby in a pushchair. Though, I say baby I think it was a toddler because it was in one of those pushchairs where they can just sit in – anyway. I was stood outside a shop with Jesse, checking my phone because it had gone off, and this woman had the child in the pushchair near to me and Jesse just out of nowhere jumped up at him and started licking his face. I felt so bad. Luckily the woman was nice about it and the kid didn't start crying. That was a bonus." he said, letting out a laugh afterwards. He only went out to go get some fresh air in the hope it would make him feel better and stop him from wanting to be sick, and all he got was Jesse embarrassing him. Nice.

Ross let out a small laugh, finding it funny but he didn't want to go off topic "Yeah, yeah, great brilliant. Fantastic."

Brad's laugh faded "Are you sure you're okay?" Brad asked, Ross nodded "why are you er – how do I put this? - acting like that for."

"Oh, you know why."

"Do I?"

Ross nodded before turning around and going into the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him. Brad sighed heavily and rolled his eyes, looking over to Jesse who had her ears raised and was looking at the bedroom door before looking at Brad. He shrugged "Don't look at me, I don't know why he's having a hissy fit..." Brad mumbled, going to the bedroom.

Brad opened up the bedroom door, making it hit off the wall and shut again "No, really, what's your problem? You've been acting like this ever since we got back from England. And don't you dare say it's James' death affecting you because you weren't that close to him."

Ross rolled his eyes "I'm not gonna use a stupid excuse, Brad. I'm not you."

"What has gotten into you?!"

"What's gotten into me?" Ross questioned in disbelief "what's gotten into _you_?!" he asked, making Brad confused "oh don't act innocent, I know you've been hiding something from me and I want to know what." he said, being inches away from Brad and looking very annoyed and angry.

Brad gulped, not liking the short space between them and the look on Ross's face. The last time this happened Brad ended up on the floor and with a black eye for a week. "I-I don't know what you're talking about..." Brad said, becoming nervous.

Ross smiled at him "Good thing I do isn't it?" he turned around and made his way over to the drawers.

Brad's face fell "W-what..."

Ross turned to Brad, seeing the look on his face "Yes I do. And clearly you can tell what my reaction is going to be once I show you."

Brad shook his head violently, with tears forming in his eyes "No, no, no. Who told you? Ross—"

"Stay where the fuck you are," Ross said, putting his hand out as he saw Brad about to come towards him. He put his hand into the small box and pulled out what he was looking for and turned back to Brad "your sister came to our hotel room and dropped off a box for you. A box full of pictures you left behind about two years ago," he said, seeing Brad nodding as he knew where this was about to go "and there was one very interesting picture when I looked. Oh, wait, it wasn't a picture. It was an ultrasound!" he said, raising his voice.

Brad went to go say something but Ross stopped him "Oh, save it. I don't wanna hear it." he said, throwing the ultrasound at him.

"Why are you so angry for?" Brad asked, confused and trying not to cry as he picked it up off the floor after it hit off his face "I thought you would have been nice about it! Tristan, James and Connor had it drilled in my head that you would be calm. Not angry."

"Wait, wait, wait... they knew before I did?"

"Y-yeah... James was with me when I first found out and Connor and Tris found out the same way you did..."

Ross scoffed "Of course. People had to know before me didn't they."

"In my defence I tried to tell you but it was a little too late and no point in me telling you."

"No point? There has and always will be a point in you telling me! What if it was the other way around, huh? What if it was me instead of you?"

"Then I would have been supportive and have been nice about it! Not like you. Blowing your head off and making a big deal out of it."

"Why should I be supportive and nice about it for? If anything I'm angry, annoyed, pissed to the max and so fucking disgusted I can't even find the correct words."

"Disgusted?" Brad questioned, his voice quietened and cracked. He literally felt his heart sink from his chest all the way to his stomach.

Of all the things he thought Ross would feel, he thought it would be anything but that. He honestly didn't know what to say, nothing would come out of his mouth. All Brad could do was put his head into his hands and sink to his knees on the floor, beginning to cry.

Ross rolled his eyes "Oh, don't start the fucking water works. It's not gonna work. You shouldn't have slept with whoever you slept with and got them pregnant! Should have you?"

"W-what..?" Brad asked, raising his head "I... I didn't sleep with anybody else..."

"Uh, how else do you explain the ultrasound? Of course you did."

Brad got up off the floor, looking at Ross in disbelief with tears still falling down his face "Do you honestly think I would cheat on you? Do you think I love you that less I would do that to you? I would never do that ever. Not even if someone offered me all the money in the world."

Ross stared at Brad for a moment "What..? Why do you have an ultrasound then?" Ross asked, seeing more tears in Brad's eyes and it was starting to make Ross feel really bad for making him cry as he realised Ellington was right after all "please don't cry... Did someone else give it to you? Like a family member? Or friend..?" he asked, Brad shook his head, and Ross took a step towards him "t-then... whose is it..?" he asked, being confused.

"Y-you got one thing right... it is mine."

Ross nodded, blinking a few times "Yes..?"

"But... it's not just mine..." Brad paused, trying not to break down again because now he feared Ross's reaction more than anything. He put it in Ross's hand because he couldn't hold it any more "It's also yours."

Ross looked down at the ultrasound and back at Brad, slightly wide-eyed as he didn't know what to say and he saw that it looked Brad could fall any moment "W-what..? How..? Where is it now?" Ross asked, more confused than ever.

Brad shrugged, trying not to cry but it was far too late "Are you forgetting about what happened to me two years ago outside the diner?" He asked, his voice cracking slightly.

Ross let out a small gasp "Brad... No..." Ross said, suddenly wishing he hadn't of acted like such an ass two minutes ago.

Brad shut his eyes tightly and Ross quickly wrapped his arms around him, seeing it looked like he could break at any moment and he did as soon as Ross hugged him. "Oh my, God, Brad, I am so sorry. I'm so sorry, I love you so much, oh my, God," Ross said, getting upset himself and kissing his head and holding him tightly as he cried "I'm so sorry you had to go through that on your own." he said, slowly sinking to the floor with him "I'm so sorry..." he whispered.

Out of all the things Ross had done in the world that were bad, this was possibly the worst.

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><p><strong>Hopefully this chapter wasn't too mean or done too fast. I hope this story doesn't seem like it's moving along quick, it's just... there's nothing to put in between the main plots of the story. Like, Connor &amp; Rydel's plot wasn't going to start until this happened between Ross &amp; Brad so that should kick off at the end of the next chapter :D<strong>

**Thanks for reading!**

_**4 OR MORE REVIEWS IF YOU WANT THE NEXT ONE & PLEASE ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW IN YOUR REVIEW! ;D**_

**Thoughts on Connor blaming himself for what Brad said?**

**Thoughts on Ellington in this chapter (the phone call)?**

**Thoughts on Jesse being kinda in sync like a human with Ross & Brad? Do you find it funny? Do you think I should continue doing that in some places?**

**Thoughts on the secret finally being revealed? Did you remember seeing hints in My English Love Affair towards the end?**

**Thoughts on the way the baby was killed?**


	6. More Lies

**The only reason I'm updating this is bc I had it half way done, and instead of updating what is supposed to be updated today I decided to just do this instead. That, and I still have mock exams for another week. So, week-ends have been my only breaks, really. THAT and I have been working on a special story for all of you which I hope you all love ;) It's got something to do with another story which I think quite a lot of you read :) Keep checking my profile every now & then bc I will be posting the first chapter of it soon ;)**

**With the flashback in this chapter, you are going to HAVE to try & remember things from My English Love Affair. It's not a big thing you have to remember, just after when Ross & Brad broke up but before The Vamps had gone back to the USA when everyone thought Brad had "depression". Hopefully that kicked started your memory's. Basically, this flashback is what happened when Tristan and Connor got James to take Brad to the hospital after he continuously refused too etc, etc.**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 or The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI Records!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 6<br>**_More Lies_**  
><strong>

_The silence in the doctors room was deafening and plain awkward._

_James didn't dare say anything to Brad after having a screaming match and basically wrestling him to get out of the car and go into the hospital. Just because Brad agreed to go to the hospital to get it confirmed that he has depression so he can get better, doesn't mean he wasn't going to put up a fight at the doors of the hospital._

_James slouched in the chair he was sat in, saying nothing and Brad sat on the end of the bed, waiting for the doctor to get back. Brad sighed, feeling irritated that James had made him do this – along with Tristan, Connor and his sister of course. It wasn't just James' fault. He didn't want to be here in the first place, he just wanted to go home and curl up into a ball in his bed. "Are you going to say something because this silence is annoying me?" Brad asked, as it had been at least five minutes since they had spoken a word to each other._

_James turned his head, looking lost and not knowing what to say or do "Make up your mind! One minute you want me to shut up and the next you want me to talk! I can't win with you! Besides, it's for your own good that you're here. And I know you're sick of hearing this, but it's true."_

_Brad sighed again, throwing James an unamused look by his attitude. James didn't know whether to say something because honestly, he was petrified. He moved uncomfortably in his chair "See. This is why when you're in a loving relationship, you shouldn't mess it up." James mumbled._

"_You kissed me!"_

"_You let me."_

"_You were drunk."_

"_You weren't. You could of pushed me away any time you liked before our lips touched, I'm just saying." James said, slouching more in his chair and folding his arms._

_He knows he shouldn't have said that, but honestly it was funny whinding Brad up like that. Tristan did it, but he ended up getting about 2 pillows thrown at him, which isn't much, really._

_Brad glared at him, deciding to not even respond to that. He began to feel sick again, and if he was going to be sick James was unfortunately going to be the bucket. James looked away from Brad as he glared at him, not daring to make any more eye contact. It was so tense and awkward._

_Jeez. He's known the guy for years and never has James seen him so upset, hurt and... Moody? Angry? Hormonal? All of the above?_

_Brad didn't even flinch when the nurse came in and took some blood samples from his arms. And normally he flinches like a cat went you accidentally step on it's tail. That's another small thing that happened where James could tell Brad wasn't Brad any more._

_As silence took over again, the door opened and in came the doctor with a face mixed with fright, sympathy and nervousness, along side a sheet of paper in her hand. Brad groaned "Oh, please don't tell me it's as bad as your face is telling me."_

"_Or," James sat back up in the chair "everyone was right. It was depression," James said, making Brad and the doctor look at him funny "no way, I was right?"_

_The doctor shook her head "No, far from." she said, bringing James' hopes down - but also making him confused. What else could it be?_

"_So, on a scale on one to ten – judging by your face – how bad is it? Am I dying?" Brad asked, clearly not in the mood for anything at the moment._

_The doctor shrugged "I don't know... it depends," she said, trying to ease her way into telling him nicely "have you ever thought about what it would be like if you were a Dad?"_

_Brad blinked at the doctor emotionlessly. What this had to do with anything, he did not know._

_He shrugged, looking thoughtful for a moment "Eh. It's not really something I've thought abo—why?" he asked, suddenly realising what she had actually asked him._

"_Because, er..." She trailed off, scratching the back of her neck nervously "there's no easy way to say this but... erm... it appears that, you're... pregnant."_

"_WHAT?! HOW?!" Brad and James both shouted at the same time, making the doctor jump. Brad shook his head "Oh, no, no, no. Nice try, nice prank. Where's Tristan? More importantly, where's Dean because he's more than likely recording this getting it ready to go on YouTube. You're lying to me!"_

"_Brad!" James shrieked at him for becoming rude towards the nurse, even though he knows it's at disbelief and shock at what the doctor had just told him._

_Brad turned to James "Oh, c'mon James! How can I be? I'm a boy! You know that from the many times you never knocked on my freaking door when I was getting changed!"_

_James shut his eyes in disbelief and embarrassment that he had said that out loud in front of someone. "And besides," Brad went on to James, making him dread what he was about to say next "if guys can all of a sudden get pregnant, then why aren't you?"_

"_Because I haven't had sex with a boy maybe?" James asked, like it was obvious that was the reason._

"_Alright then, if we're going **there**, why isn't Ross?"_

_James stared at Brad with no expression, blinking a few times "Do you really want me to answer that in front of someone?" James asked, and Brad nodded "Do you Brad? Do you **really**?"_

_Brad stared at James, debating on what he meant by it and all of a sudden it hit him "Oh, OH! No! I'm good thanks."_

_James nodded "Thought so."_

Everything in the room was silent and had been for at least an hour now.

Ignoring the fact that Brad crying had only stopped thirty minutes ago and he was now currently laid in bed with his head on Ross's chest after having to go to the toilet once or twice to throw up, clearly the fresh air he thought was going to be a good idea to get whilst taking Jesse for a walk didn't work. If anything, it made it worse. And with Ross yelling and screaming at him didn't help either.

Ross held him, stroking his hair gently and looking over to the door where he could hear Jesse trying to get into the bedroom by pressing her nose against the door frame in the hope the door would swing open. Clearly she had heard the shouting and crying from before and was probably worrying like dogs do with their owners when they're upset and have been shouting for some unknown reason they don't know about.

He sighed and looked down at Brad, obviously he had fallen asleep meaning Ross couldn't move without waking him up but he didn't care. He didn't want to move. He felt so bad. More bad than he did when he punched Brad in the face because he was angry and couldn't control it any longer.

No doubt Brad was pregnant then too, which made Ross feel even worse about it.

You know, Ross comes across as a really nice, loving and caring person but now that he thinks about it. He's not. He's the worst person ever for not noticing or acknowledging that someone was pregnant.

Ross is literally having flashbacks from the past of when it was so obvious too him that he was pregnant.

Like when they were at the diner and he wanted to throw up but Ross thought it was because he wanted to get out of the conversation, given that they were broken up and Ross was trying to fix things. That had to be the most obvious sign of all. As Ross said to Sally that same day, when Brad got shot... there was that much blood you would have thought two people had gotten shot.

And they did.

Ross sighed, shutting his eyes and holding onto Brad a little tighter and kissing the top of his head. The way he felt right now was not good. He felt like taking a long walk off a short pier.

Just as Ross pulled away, the bedroom door boomed open due to Jesse pressing up against it so much the handle just gave in and let the door open. Ross sighed as he felt Brad moving. "What the hell..?" he asked, sitting up on the bed as Jesse came trotting over to the edge of the bed on the other side.

Ross sighed heavily "Jesus, Jesse, you are like the dog from hell, I swear."

Brad rubbed his eyes, clearly delirious from waking up as he looked like he didn't know what was happening at the moment. "You were asleep. Jesse came in and woke you up." Ross said.

"Yeah, I kinda got that bit," Brad said, taking his hands away from his face. He shut his eyes and groaned when he remembered what happened before he had fallen asleep "Oh, no..."

"What's wrong?" Ross asked, scooting closer to him.

Brad shook his head "Nothing. It's just... nothing."

Ross frowned a little, knowing what it might have been to do with. He kissed the side of his head lightly "Why didn't you tell me?" Ross asked "so much could have been avoided that day..."

"I was trying."

"Not hard enough."

"You insisted that what you wanted to say was more important. Then you told me that by the look on my face it seemed bad, so don't tell you if it's going to bring the mood down. As we were walking away, it was literally on the tip of my tongue, I was about to tell you, but I only got half a word out and that was 'I'. I didn't get chance to say 'm pregnant' because it was too late," Brad explained, his voice shaking slightly "that, and I was petrified of telling you."

"Why were you scared?" Ross asked.

Brad rolled his eyes "What do most teenage boys do when they get someone pregnant?"

"Was I most teenage boys?" Ross asked, Brad shook his head "exactly. If anything, I would have been confused as to how – which I am wondering by the way, but save the big long explanation for later – and then I would have asked you to prove it. Because lets be honest, hearing a boy saying they're pregnant isn't something you hear every day. Is it?"

Brad shrugged "I don't know, I got pretty use to saying it when I had to tell my freaking parents and sister who thought I was playing a gigantic prank on them."

Ross raised his brow "What did they say when they found out it wasn't a prank?"

"There wasn't much they could say. Yeah, they were shocked and I gave them time to process it through their brain, but they finally came around and had 'the talk' with me. You know? The talk your parents would have had with Rydel when they found out she was pregnant," Brad explained "yeah, that wasn't awkward or anything," he said sarcastically "I think they were expecting to have that talk with Natalie long before they had _that_ talk with me."

Ross smirked, making Brad give him a funny look "Sorry, I know I shouldn't laugh but I can just imagine your face whilst they were talking to you about it," he shook his head, calming down his laughter that was forming "I'm trying not to be insensitive by laughing—look, just look at it that I'm not saying anything bad so I'm not judging or making fun of you."

"Yeah, I got that." Brad said, slightly annoyed.

"Jesus Christ, someone woke up angry from their nap," Ross said, Brad rolled his eyes. Ross sighed "Sorry, I'm just trying to lighten the mood. Apparently it's not working."

"You think?"

Ross wrapped his arms around Brad and pulled him closer, hugging him and resting his chin on his head "I know I've said it a hundred times in the past hour, and I will keep on saying it until I stop feeling like an ass hole. I'm so sorry and I love you."

Brad sighed, resting against him "I know. I love you too."

"I just need to know something..."

"Sure, anything."

"Ever since that happened 2 years ago. Throughout these past two years, you haven't fell pregnant again have you without me knowing? And if you have, you didn't lose it again or you didn't... _do_ anything so I wouldn't find out, if you know what I mean?" Ross asked.

"Surprisingly, no. I haven't got pregnant since. I'm not gonna lie, I was kinda expecting it to happen when you didn't know and then I would have had no choice but to tell you. But, apparently not."

Ross nodded "Good. I didn't want you doing anything stupid."

"Like what?"

"I don't know... aborting it so I wouldn't find out."

"Ross, I'd never do that. Ever. Even when it happened the first time, James suggested it to me and I bit his head off about it. Why would you wanna kill something so small and a life that's barely began?"

Ross went to go say something, but decided against it. Brad looked up at him. He rolled his eyes "Go on. I know what you're gonna say. Just say it."

"Tell that to the person that shot you. There."

"In his defence, he didn't know. If it was even a he."

"It was a he. No girl is that masculine."

Brad shrugged "Eh, I knew a few girls at school."

Ross shook his head, slightly wide-eyed "Fair enough," he said as they both sat on the edge and Jesse rested her head on Brad's lap, looking up at him with her puppy-dog eyes, he stroked her head "why don't we go out for an hour and do something? You know? Take our minds of everything that's happened for a while?" Ross asked.

"I don't know. I still don't feel well."

Ross rolled his eyes "That's cos you need food and fresh air. Fresh air that lasts longer than thirty minutes. C'mon, we'll go for something to eat and walk home afterwards. I bet you'll feel better."

"Alright, fine." Brad groaned giving in. Ross smiled in satisfaction and quickly pecked his lips.

Rydel walked around the living room of her apartment, quickly getting ready to go somewhere. She was already dressed and all she needed was a babysitter. She would ask Ross and Brad, but the last time they both baby sat Matty and Tyler at their place it ended in disaster and Rydel almost burying them both 6 feet under the ground.

She would ask Rocky, but it turned out in the time she was in England with Ross and Brad, Riker and Ellington spent most of their time watching the two boys and Ellington was supposed to be looking after Jesse as well. And because of that happening, she couldn't ask Riker or Ellington to do it again. So she was either going to have to be an irresponsible mother and leave them on their own for a few hours in bed asleep, or take them with her.

But given they were already asleep, she didn't want to wake them up.

She was torn.

She was basically ready to go out too, and now it was looking like a waste of time of getting ready.

Rydel went to go pick up her phone to call someone but there was a knock at her door. She put her phone down and opened up the door, her eyes widened "Connor! You should be at the hotel in bed! You're still recovering from the crash. Are you an idiot?"

Connor shrugged, looking slightly thoughtful "Eh, I have my moments," he looked Rydel up and down, noticing she was dressed up to go out "you look nice. Where are you going?" He asked.

"Oh, er... um... I was going to go out with Alexa and Maia. I haven't for a while, you see. But, then I realised when I was dressed I don't have a baby sitter..."

"I didn't think Maia was back from Australia..." Connor said, looking off to the side. He looked back at Rydel "Why didn't you ask me to look after Tyler and Matty?"

"Because, as I said when I opened the door... You're recovering still. I don't even know why you came to America in this state anyway."

"Hey! I can still walk, talk and lift things. I'm still useful. Besides, you've been that worried about me hurting myself I've barely spent any time with them both. I might as well look after them. Are they in bed?" Connor asked, Rydel nodded "well, there you go then! I won't be looking after them the way I usually do. All I have to do is check up on them and get them back to sleep if they wake up."

Rydel had her hands on her hips, with her eyes brows raised "Connor, I know what happens when they wake up and you're looking after them. You don't put them back to bed."

Connor rolled his eyes "Oh, whatever Rydel," he said, grabbing her by the arm and practically throwing her out of the apartment "I'll look after them for the night. You go out and enjoy yourself."

"But Connor—"

"No! Go!" Connor said, slamming the door shut in her face. He sighed, being satisfied.

That was until Rydel knocked on the door. He opened it up "What?" He asked.

"I need my bag and coat! I can't go anywhere without money." She said, standing outside the door.

Connor turned around, seeing her bag and coat on the couch. He walked over and got them before throwing them over to Rydel who luckily caught them, she didn't look amused what so ever. "Hey, it's me, do you expect any less?" Connor asked.

Rydel shook her head "No. Not really. What did you even come round for?" Rydel asked.

"What? Oh, er. I don't know. I just wanted to talk. You know? Catch up seen as though you've confined me to my hotel bed like my Mum."

Rydel laughed softly "Alright, if I get back and you're not asleep we'll talk and catch up. Bye now." She said, walking away from the door to leave.

Connor waved at her and shut the door. Once the door was shut he walked over to the couch and sat down, not really knowing what to do because he's never stayed over at Rydel's apartment by himself. He felt awkward. He switched on the TV and started flipping through the American channels.

That was when a phone started ringing.

He looked around to see where it was coming from where he saw Rydel's phone lighting up on the coffee table. He picked it up, seeing who was ringing her.

_Unknown Number_

Connor cocked his head in confusion.

Would Rydel be mad if he answered?

Only one way to find out.

"Hello..?" Connor said, answering the phone. No doubt it was probably one of those numbers that ring with an automated message at the end.

"Hello?"

Apparently it wasn't. "Uh, hi..." Connor said, waiting for the person to speak on the end.

"Um... Who's this?"

"Connor... Who's that?" Connor asked.

"Oh... Connor... I should have known... She did say you were over from England..."

Connor felt suspicious about this person. They knew Rydel, yet they were blocking their number so it couldn't be seen. Weird. "Yeah..."

"Is Rydel there?"

"No... she's just gone out to meet someone."

"Yeah, she's supposed to be meeting me."

She lied. Again. Rydel lied. What is with her and lying lately? It's like the Brad situation all over again. Connor sighed "Oh, okay. I'm taking it you must be dating her or something. She told me she was going out with her friends. But whatever, I'm not her boyfriend, I shouldn't care. Oh, you know what, whatever. Forget I said that."

The person laughed a little on the other end of the phone "You haven't changed since the last time I saw you. Anyway, I'll let you go. You're probably babysitting our kids and you need to see to them. They're more important. Bye now."

"Alright. Bye." Connor hung up the phone. He laid back into the sofa getting comfortable again when he replayed the conversation on the phone over in his head, wondering who it was.

His eyes widened and he practically jumped off the sofa when he realised "NO!"

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><p><strong>Thoughts on the flashback with Brad &amp; James finding out? Do you want more of them?<strong>

**Thoughts on Ross in this chapter?**

**Thoughts on Connor & Rydel in this chapter?**

**Thoughts on Rydel beginning to constantly lie all the time?**

**Thoughts on Connor?**

**Thoughts on what you think is gonna happen in the next chapter?**

_**PLEASE REVIEW! :D**_


	7. Ross & James

**YAY! Finally, more characters are finally coming into this story rather than it just being Ross, Brad, Rydel & Connor with the occasional appearance of Ellington. WOO.**

_Flashbacks_

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 or The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI Records!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 7<br>**_Ross & James_**  
><strong>

It took them longer than usual to go out because they had to get changed, and when they were getting changed Brad was complaining about how his jeans felt tighter than usual and they wouldn't fasten. So Ross tried to shut them for him, eventually he did it but then Brad decided that he couldn't breathe in them because of how tight they were.

Ross swears he's married to a girl sometimes.

And after what he found out today, makes that thought even more true.

Eventually they did get to go out where they went for something quick to eat and decided to walk around for a while rather than go home. They'd only been out for an hour, they might as well stay out for a little longer. They found themselves walking around LA very slowly, but they didn't mind. It gave them a chance to talk about things and past things that happened.

A little while later they found themselves sat on a bench talking about random things, a little bit like they used too a few years back.

That was until they saw Rocky, Ellington and Alexa coming towards them from a short distance away. The three had already spotted them and picked up their pace to get over to Ross and Brad.

Ellington smirked as he came over "Ahh, so everything's fine, I see. You were being a drama queen for nothing."

Ross rolled his eyes "Shut up."

Brad turned his head, giving Ross a suspicious look but he figured that Ross must have told Ellington about the whole ultrasound misunderstanding before Ross actually got told the truth and freaked out on Brad. "Can I have my twenty dollars now?" Ellington asked.

"What are you talking about? Has something happened?" Rocky asked.

"Nope." Ross, Brad and Ellington all said unison quickly. Rocky and Alexa were a little bit suspicious about this, knowing fine well something was up but they weren't telling them, but they chose to ignore it. After all, it's their life. It's got nothing to do with them, to a certain extent.

"So, er, we're going down to the arcade for a while," Alexa said "do you two wanna come with us?" She asked.

Ross looked at Brad and back up to Alexa "Uh, can you leave us alone for a little bit? We'll come down afterwards. We won't be long."

Alexa nodded before she, Rocky and Ellington walked off to go to the arcade like they agreed to. As they walked off, Ellington kept on taking glances back to Ross and Brad to make sure they were alright and Ellington wasn't misreading the whole situation, thinking that everything was okay when it's not.

A small silence took over Ross and Brad for a short while as the others walked away. Ross sighed, breaking the silence, and turned his head to Brad "Did I ever tell you the story about what James got me to do after I asked you to marry me?" Ross asked.

Again, Brad became suspicious "No... But do tell." He said, becoming intrigued.

"Okay, so it was after you had gotten out of hospital and it was the morning after I'd stayed at the hotel with you for the first time in a while about two years ago..."

_Ross had been laid awake in bed for ages, staring at the ceiling because lazy ass next to him hadn't woken up yet. Though, he doesn't blame him. It's probably the painkillers that are making Brad sleep so heavily and late – not that he cares. Even though that first sentence begs to differ._

_Ross decided to get out of bed anyway and get dressed. After he was dressed he looked over to the bed where Brad was still out for the count, and he shook his head, sitting on the edge of the bed where he stroked his hair gently. He thought he almost woke Brad up by doing that, but he only moved around a little and mumbled. "I love you." Ross said quietly, and kissed his head._

_Ross got back up off the bed and left the room. He started making his way down the hallway to Connor's room so that he could tell him something quickly, which wasn't really important. He just needed to tell someone and let it off his chest. He'd tell Brad, but he already knew. And Rydel would just scream in his face._

_He got to the door he was looking for and knocked on it. To his surprise, James answered the door instead of Connor. Ross groaned, realising he had the wrong room. "What are you doing here?" James asked._

_Ross had his head thrown back slightly "I thought it was Connor's room... I needed to tell him something but, I suppose you'll do instead." Ross said, going to enter James' hotel room._

"_No, Ross, don't!" James said, trying to stop him from going in but it was too late._

_Ross felt confused as to why James was trying to stop him from coming into the room, but then he looked over to the hotel bed and saw Sally fast asleep in it. Luckily for Ross she was fully clothed. He turned to James "Seriously, James? How many dates have you been on with her? I swear to god, no babies better not have been conceived last night or I will kill you."_

_James just smiled at Ross, holding back the urge to say something to Ross but he couldn't because Ross didn't know. If he could say something, it would be something like: **Same goes for you **or **my feelings when I found out about Brad.**_

_James grabbed Ross by the arm, him being fully clothed, and took him out into the hallway where they both stood. After James shut the door, he turned to Ross "What's going on? What do you need to tell me?"_

"_Well, here's the thing. Me and Brad are gonna get married because I asked him to in the diner, but obviously things happened and we got a little bit distracted before we could talk about it further and in more detail." Ross said, adding a little bit of sarcasm._

_James let out a little laugh and smiled, hitting him in the arm playfully "That's great. I'm happy for you both," he said, giving Ross a hug. He pulled away, keeping his hand on his shoulder "Oh, and by the way, if you hurt Brad again like the way you did before, I'll hurt you so much you'll wish the roles were reversed between you and Brad when he got shot, okay?"_

_Ross nodded, looking slightly scared by that threat. James sighed "So, have you told Brad's Dad yet? Or better yet asked him?" James asked "I mean, if you did I'm surprised he's okay with it."_

_Ross puffed his cheeks, trying to make full sense of what James was saying because he didn't know that Brad's Dad was that type of person where you had to ask your boyfriend or girlfriends Dad before asking them to marry you. James' face fell when he saw the confusion on Ross's face "Oh, God. Ross, you do realise that when you and Brad broke up that his Dad found out – obviously – and he wasn't happy that you had broken his one and only sons heart completely. And for the fact you'd punched him as well during the break up. Oh yeah, and he certainly wasn't any more happier when he found out Brad was—never mind, that's a story for another day," James said, mentally slapping himself for the accidental slip of the tongue._

"_But seriously," James continued "I know Brad's Dad isn't old fashioned in that way, but after what happened you better ask him and let him know otherwise Brad will have no one to meet at the alter. **If** you know what I mean."_

_Ross let out a little noise that showed he was scared. James took out his phone and swiped through it for a while before bringing up a contact and handing it to Ross "Do it now."_

_Ross looked at James' phone and saw Brad's Dad's phone number up on the screen, ready to call. He whimpered and reluctantly took the phone from James and clicked the call button. Needless to say, his heart rate sped up to the point where he thought it was going to explode._

_After a few rings, and Ross almost having a panic attack, his Dad finally picked up the phone. "Hello? James? Is everything okay? Is Brad alright? Is he out of hospital yet?" He asked._

_Ross took a deep breath "Y-yeah... er... not James. Um... he's fine. He's out of hospital, has been since yesterday and is in bed asleep as speak." Ross said, obviously nervous._

"_Then if it's not James, who is it?"_

_Ross looked at James terrified and wanting to bail out but James shook his head and grabbed hold of Ross's hand with the phone in, and pressed it against his ear so he couldn't get out of it. "I-it's er... it's Ross." Ross said._

_The small silence over the phone at that moment felt like it had lasted 10 years to Ross._

"_Ross?" Brad's Dad, Derek, questioned "wait a minute... are you that arse hole that broke my sons heart?!"_

_Ross nodded, even though Derek couldn't see him "Yup... that's the one," Ross said. Nervous was not the correct word in the English dictionary and language to describe Ross's feelings right now. "Punch me as many times as you like if you ever see me, I don't care. I deserve it."_

"_Too right you do. Now what do you want?" Derek asked harshly._

_Ross took the phone away from his ear "I can't do it. He scares me." Ross said quietly to James. James rolled his eyes and stuck the phone back to Ross's ear like before. "Um... you see... w-when me and Brad were talking before he got shot—"_

"_Wait, you were there when he got shot?"_

"_Y-you didn't know..."_

"_No. Why are you **always** there when he gets hurt?!"_

"_Oh dear. This isn't looking good..." Ross mumbled "but anyway, before **that** happened, as I said I was talking to him and er... I er... may or may not have asked him to er... marry me... and I er... was wondering if you were um... okay with it..."_

"_You did what?" Derek asked, now even more bemused by all this information he was receiving._

_James on the other hand was nearly on the floor dying from laughter at the way Ross was shitting himself over all this. "You asked him to marry you after what you did to him?" Derek asked._

"_Yeah."_

"_He wouldn't move out of bed or out of the house unless he had too for three weeks straight because of what you did. You basically destroyed him, because you did more than one thing to him that I think you're pretty much aware of. Then I learn you were there when he got shot with, probably, little effort to save him and now you're calling me, and asking if I'm okay with letting you both go through with getting married?"_

_A small silence took over the phone which made Ross feel awkward and tense. "So is that a yes then?" Ross asked._

_Suddenly, the phone line went flat. "H-he-hello? Hello? Yeah, he hung up on me." Ross said, handing the phone back to James who just shook his head._

"Oh my, God," Brad said, finding it slightly amusing but it also made sense too "no wonder he did what he did when we both went over to mine for the first time. I could never understand why he did that and he never ever told me why either." Brad wasn't surprised though that this had happened with Ross. It was Ross for crying out loud, anything's possible with him.

Ross stared at him confused "What did he do?"

"You don't remember?" Brad asked, Ross shook his head. Brad shrugged "Well, to be fair... you did hit the floor pretty hard..."

"_I'm nervous."_

_Brad rolled his eyes as they were at his front door "It's alright. Calm down. This is like... what? The second time they've met you? The first time it was only brief. And to be fair, they didn't know about us being together." Brad said._

_Brad, Connor, Tristan and James had finally returned home back to England a month after the shooting incident, and Brad wanted Ross to come with him so that his parents could talk to him more and get a chance to know him better before they got married because lets be honest, they barely know anything about him. Brad had already called his Mum/Mom and let her know about it and she seemed fine with it._

_It's his Dad he never got to speak to._

_Brad opened up the front door to his house, looking to see who was in "Dad? Mum? Natalie?" Brad called as they walked into the house "who's home?"_

"_We all are," Brad's Mum/Mom, Anne, called from inside the kitchen. She came out the kitchen and smiled when she saw Brad and Ross "Hey, how are you feeling?" She asked, giving him a gentle hug "are you in pain still?" she asked, Brad shook his head "good, good."_

_Brad smiled a little and felt Jesse nudging at his legs and jumping up at him "Hey, Jesse," He said, giving her a quick stroke and kiss on the head when she jumped up on her back legs to him. He pushed her down gently "Where's Dad?"_

_As soon as Anne heard that question from Brad, her happy smile faded and she looked at Ross who had an idea of what that meant. She looked back at Brad "See, there's the thing, you might need to have a quiet word with him. Either on your own, or with Ross."_

"_Oh, no." Ross whimpered quietly. He really didn't want to see Brad's Dad._

"_Are they here?" Derek asked from another room._

"_Yeah... they're here..." Anne called back._

_Suddenly his heavy footsteps could be heard coming from the living room. "Oh, he sounds joyful..." Ross said, sarcastically and scared._

_Brad faced Ross, wondering why he was so scared and nervous. He turned back round where he saw his Dad coming out of the living room and he pushed Brad out of the way, making a B line for Ross where then Derek punched Ross in the face as hard as he could to the floor. "DAD!" Brad shouted, pushing him away "What the hell was that for?!" he asked, kneeling down to Ross and helping him sit up on the floor._

_Anne slapped Derek across the face "That was out of order! Go in there now!" She said, pushing him into the living room._

"_Oh my, God, are you alright?" Brad asked as Anne also knelt down next to Ross._

_Ross held onto his jaw __"Aw, w__hat a lovely welcome,"_ _He said sarcastically. Ross moved his jaw about, letting it go "well, my jaw's still working, that's a bonus, I didn't think it was," Ross said, smiling happily – but it looked like he was high – towards Brad and Anne who let out a small laugh each "my face is so numb though, ow." he rubbed his cheek where it hurt._

"_Your lips bleeding..."_

_Ross wiped his lip, seeing the blood on his hand "Oh! So it is!"_

"_Ross, I think you've got concussion..." Anne said, noticing how dipsy he was being "c'mon, come in the kitchen we'll get you sorted." _

"Oh... Yeah... I forgot about that..." Ross said, looking up thoughtfully "I just remembered hitting the floor and that was it. Was I that badly concussed?" He asked, Brad nodded. Ross shook his head, going back to the subject of when Ross had to call Brad's Dad with James "But yeah, at least I now know what your Dad meant by 'what else I did to you' along with the break-up," He said, referring to the baby "honestly, I didn't think Dad's could be very protective over their sons. But... then I met your Dad."

Brad nodded "Yeah, he was even worse with me when he found _that_ out for the first time. God, he would barely leave my side when I was home in case I did something stupid by accident that harmed the baby. And honestly, when I told him, I thought he wouldn't have cared. I thought that after he'd gotten over the fact that I was pregnant, he'd have been fine and just treat me the way he use to. But no. Literally, he was by side 24/7, even when I was throwing up in the bathroom from the sickness. You'd have thought he was panicked in case I was gonna choke on the sick or something," Brad said, making Ross let out a small laugh "every day when I was sick, five seconds later, he'd be there. He'd even be there when I didn't need him with me in the house. Even when I lashed out at him because of the hormones, I even told him to leave me alone because I'm not a baby – pardon the pun and all – and he still never," he breathed deeply "I swear to god, it was an absolute nightmare. I never wanna go through that again."

"Being pregnant or your Dad's protectiveness?"

"Both!" Brad said, even though he knew Ross was trying to joke.

Ross let out a small laugh "I can imagine. Rydel was bad when she was pregnant. She was even worse than you probably were. And she had twice the fun – and like you said, pardon the pun."

Brad let out a small laugh and nodded in agreement "Probably," he sighed and then he looked slightly thoughtful "though... I say I don't want to go through it again... the way I've been sick and acting these past few weeks makes me feel like I a—" Brad stopped in the middle of the sentence and his eyes widened slightly "oh."

Ross cocked his head in confusion at why Brad had stopped, but replayed the sentence back over in his head of what he had just said. His eyes widened too when he realised "You... You don't think you're..." Ross said, trailing off and making gestures with his hands so the people walking passed them wouldn't hear.

"Well... I... I... I don't... I mean... I have been sick a lot and... I have been complaining at how my trousers feel tight on me all the time. And I've been moody-ish and emotional sometimes. But I thought the emotion thing was just because James had died," Brad turned his head away from Ross and looked straight ahead of him, he sighed "Oh, no, not again."

Ross saw Brad panicking slightly so he linked his hand with his and scooted close to him on the bench "Hey, it's alright, don't panic. It's not like the last time, okay? You're not on our own and this time I know before I can let anything bad can happen like it did before. But, maybe you're not pregnant. Maybe you are just genuinely grieving in a way still. It's a bit of a weird way though, I'll admit that. Look, we'll go to the hospital some time this week and get you looked at. Hopefully we'll see someone who saw to you when you were in hospital when you got shot, because obviously they had to of knew you were pregnant to have known you miscarried it when it happened. But... then again... it was two years ago and they've probably got a different job now..."

Brad turned his head, staring at Ross confused "What the hell are you talking about? I wasn't saying 'oh no, not again' to that. I don't care if I am, well obviously I do, but you get what I mean by I don't care—anyway, completely off topic. No, I was saying 'oh no, not again' to that." Brad put his hand under Ross's chin and turned his head so that Ross was looking directly in front of them both at what Brad saw, where Ross saw two people in the distance who hadn't seen Ross or Brad yet.

Ross's eyes widened "What is _she_ doing with _him_?"

Brad shrugged, looking at the couple "I don't know, but it looks like they're on a date," Brad said, where then the two people kissed "oh, yeah, definitely on a date. Where's Tyler and Matty? Who's looking after them?" Brad asked.

"I don't know, but tonight just got a whole lot more interesting."

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><p><strong>Things are finally getting interesting with the story yayayyayayayyayyayayyay! :D After the next chapter, all I can say is that... just... prepare yourselves for the emotional roller coaster you're all about to go on :)<strong>

_**PLEASE REVIEW & ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW!**_

**Thoughts on Ellington at the start?**

**Thoughts on Ross _IN_ the _flashbacks _with Brad's Dad? Do you wanna see more of Brad's Dad like that with Ross (not hitting, just scaring him & being unamused/unimpressed by him) & his protectiveness?**

**Thoughts on the flashback with Ross & James?**

**Thoughts on a possible Rad baby?**

**Thoughts on who you think the couple are? (even tho it's blatantly obvious)**


	8. Spying

**Short chapter tonight, but I promise the next one will be longer :)**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 or The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI records!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 8<br>**_Spying_

After watching Rydel and the guy she was with for a short while, Ross looked left and right to make sure there was nobody around that might recognise himself and Brad which might get the attention of Rydel, which is something Ross doesn't want right now.

Before looking elsewhere, Ross grabbed Brad by the arm and dragged him off the bench so that they could go and keep an eye on Rydel. "Whoa! Ross, be careful!" Brad exclaimed as he was dragged off the bench and nearly fell over.

"Sorry, but my sister is obviously back dating an ass hole and I think that's more important than me dragging you off a bench and you nearly falling over."

Brad folded his arms "Even if I might be carrying your child?"

Ross stared at Brad, not being quite sure what to say to that "Shut up."

Ross and Brad looked towards where Rydel was and as they looked over to where they were, Rydel and the guy started walking towards where Ross and Brad were. Without hesitation, Ross pushed Brad behind the nearest thing they could both hide behind – which was a bush behind a bench – and Ross followed. "Ross! Are you trying to kill me tonight?!" Brad asked, luckily not losing his balance as Ross pushed him behind the bush.

"Oh, shut your whining. It's not like it's the first time someone's been out to kill you." Ross said, looking over the bush as best as he could.

"Oh wow."

Ross groaned because he couldn't hear a word of what they were saying, but he could see what they were doing and he panicked as they started to come sit on the bench in front of the bush he and Brad were behind. Ross crouched on the ground and dragged Brad down with him who glared at him.

To Ross's dismay, Rydel sat down on the bench in front of the bush with the guy which meant that neither Ross or Brad could move without getting caught. "I feel ridiculous right now." Brad whispered, looking around on the other side of the bush at the people who were walking by Ross and Brad and could see them.

Just as Brad spoke, Rydel started speaking to the guy she was with which made Ross shush Brad. "Well, tonight's been fun. It's really helped me take my mind off the things that happened in England." Rydel said with a smile.

"Any time." The guy said with a wink and lacing his hand with Rydel's.

Ross fake gagged quietly whilst receiving an elbow in the rib cage off Brad.

Rydel sighed "Listen, Titus. I better get back home. I left Connor alone to look after Tyler and Matty and it's not fair that he's doing that whilst he's injured. But, I'll see you tomorrow."

Titus smiled "Don't worry about it. In fact, I'll walk you home." Titus said before they both got up off the bench and left.

"I'm finding it really difficult to dislike him right now," Ross said, turning to Brad as they stood up straight from behind the bush "but, give it time. He will do something in the near future that'll make me want to rip his throat out," Ross paused "again." he added.

"Oh, shut up, you couldn't hurt a fly."

Ross turned his head and glared at Brad. He shook his head "C'mon then."

"Now where are we going?" Brad asked.

"To follow them."

"Why? She's going home..."

"Yeah, but with him! He could do anything to her!"

Brad rolled his eyes "I highly doubt it now, Ross. Maybe 3 years ago, but... he seems like he's gotten over it." Ross became unsure about what Brad had said but started to debate about it in his head anyway. Brad sighed "Look, can we just go home?" Brad asked.

Ross stared at Brad like he had said something he shouldn't have "Hello! Sister. Possibly dating a psycho path again!" Ross said with a wave.

Brad waved back at him "Hello! Husband. Possibly carrying your one and only child," Brad retorted almost straight away "look, if she was in any kind of danger she'd let us know somehow. You know Rydel. And it seems like she's been seeing him in secret for a while now because of her miscarriage in England. Everything's fine. Now can we please go home because I'm starting to feel tired and sick again."

Ross gave in and nodded. He draped his arm around Brad and pulled him close as they started walking in the opposite direction of Rydel and Titus. "What are we gonna do about Rocky, Ellington and Alexa?" Brad asked.

Ross shrugged "I'll just tell them you were sick. They'll understand. Ellington will anyway," Ross said, Brad looked up at him suspiciously "yeah... that's a story for another day... it doesn't really matter any more."

"Well, don't those words sound familiar."

"Hey, I learned from the best."

Brad aggressively elbowed Ross in the stomach, making him cough.

As that happened, Brad could hear his phone ringing in his pocket. He began to pull out his phone and as he did, Ross took his arm from around Brad which accidentally caught Brad's hand with his phone in – which of course, made Brad's phone fly out of his hand halfway down the path behind them, in the direction of Rydel and Titus. But it wasn't that far towards them, luckily.

Brad stared at Ross, bemused, as he still had his hand in the position of holding his phone. "You know, I'm really a pro at pissing you off tonight aren't I?" Ross asked, Brad nodded "sorry."

Brad turned around and went to go get his phone.

Titus and Rydel walked down the road a little further from the bench to try and get a taxi. They stopped and Titus started laughing at a story Rydel was telling him about Tyler and Matty. He looked away from Rydel and glanced down the street, where there were only a few people walking about. But someone in particular caught his eye.

He saw Brad picking up his phone, or something, from the floor and the colour in Titus' face drained and he instantly became uneasy. Titus blinked a few times and shook his head before looking back at the place where he thought he had saw Brad, but saw he was now gone.

"What's wrong?" Rydel asked, noticing that something was up with him.

"N-nothing... I thought I saw someone but... yeah..."

"But what?" Rydel asked.

"But he's dead, so it couldn't have been him."

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><p><strong>Favourite Rad moment?<strong>

**Thoughts on Titus now?**

**Thoughts on Ross in this chapter?**

**Thoughts on Titus thinking that Brad's dead?**

_**PLEASE REVIEW & ANSWER THE QUESTIONS ABOVE.**_


	9. Titus

**I thought I'd update this today bc all I had to do was make a few changes & check spelling & grammar bc I'd written this at like 3 in the morning, and I've learnt from past stories not to update anything at 3 in the morning haha.**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 or The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI records!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 9<br>**_Titus_**  
><strong>

Rydel had got back from her date with Titus and was currently at the front door of her apartment. Titus had walked her to the doors of the apartment block to save him from being caught by Connor or anybody else that might recognise him and question why Rydel is with him after what he did.

She opened up the door to her apartment, and shut it when she stepped in. Rydel looked over to the couch where she saw Connor sat on the sofa with Tyler asleep in his arms. She smiled in awe at the sight. Connor looked over to Rydel "Oh, hey. I'll take him back to his room." Connor said quietly, about to lift Tyler up.

"No!" Rydel said, quickly going over before he could lift Tyler up "you're still recovering from the car crash! You don't want to lower the chances of you recovering properly if you hurt yourself again."

"But, I—"

"Shut up, no excuses."

Connor didn't even bother to argue with her, instead he shook his head and let Rydel pick Tyler up and take him to bed. You could tell she was Ross's sister with the way she was being caring and a little bit protective. But, maybe Ross gets it from Rydel rather than the other way around.

After putting Tyler to bed, Rydel came back through into the living room and sat down on the couch next to Connor. "So, how was your night with Maia and Alexa?" Connor asked, smiling a little.

Rydel hesitated at first, feeling nervous and guilty. She nodded with a smile "Great."

Connor stared at her, knowing she was lying. "Oh, by the way. You left your phone here," Connor reached over and grabbed it, showing Rydel who took it from him "I figured you might have needed it so I was gonna drop it down to you, Maia and Alexa. So, I called Alexa off your phone to ask her where you were, and... apparently she was with Rocky and Ellington at the arcade and Ross and Brad were in town, going down to meet them. And... you weren't there."

"Wasn't I?" Rydel asked, her voice going an octave higher.

"No."

"W-well, that's cos I was with Maia before we met Alexa."

"Right, yeah, so I figured and I called Maia afterwards, who apparently is still in Australia."

Rydel sighed and shut her eyes. "Give it up, Rydel," Connor said "I know who you were with. He called on the phone asking where you were."

"Look, it's not how it was last time. Things have changed! I promise! He's so different than how he used to be!" Rydel said, trying to defend him.

"Yeah? But how long is he gonna stay that way for, Rydel?" Connor asked "Yeah, people can change, but as soon as something happens that they don't like, they can go back to being how they used to."

"But, the only problem I had with him not liking was you, and for some reason Ross," Rydel said, still feeling confused as to why Titus disliked Ross, but hey, not everyone you date is going to like every member of your family, right? "but he understood that Tyler is your son and you need to see him. And in order to see him you have to see me. He's completely okay with the fact I have to see you and hang out with you! And he's okay with Ross now! He told me himself. He doesn't mind any of it. Nothing bothers him any more!" Rydel explained, trying to get Connor to come round to the idea of Titus being back in the picture and Rydel being with him. She understands that Connor might have issues with him because of what he did to Rydel, and so will her brothers, but if they love her then they'll have to put up with it won't they?

Connor stared at Rydel, raising his brow. Rydel shrugged "Connor, I'm fine with him honestly. Don't worry. If he did anything to me again, I'd tell someone. I'm not willing to put up with it if he goes back to his old ways. Please Connor, just trust him and give him a chance. Only one. That's all I'm asking." Rydel begged. She was desperate for him to accept this. She knows that Titus has changed and he definitely won't go back to how he used to be.

Connor looked at Rydel, contemplating whether or not to listen to Rydel and trust Titus. He wants to, but he can't for some reason and he doesn't know why. There's just something about him. Yes, he believes Rydel that he's changed because of the way he acted over the phone, but he still can't shake off the bad vibes coming from him.

But Connor nodded anyway, deciding to give him one more chance. But only for Rydel. Not for himself. "Alright, fine. I'll give him a chance."

Rydel smiled and hugged him "Thank you, Connor!"

Connor hugged her back. Rydel pulled away after a couple of seconds of him hugging her back. "Well, I better get going." Connor said, about to get up.

Rydel grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back "Hell no, it's late. You're not going anywhere mister."

"It's 9:30 at night..."

"And that's 4:30 a.m. UK time. If you keep walking around too much whilst you're recovering, then you're going to seriously damage yourself even more and you won't make a full recovery."

"But—"

"No buts," Rydel interrupted "now, you're either sleeping on the couch, on the floor in the boys room or in the bed in the guest bedroom."

Connor shrugged "I'll sleep on the couch. I'm already here."

"No, you'll sleep in the guest bedroom, a couch isn't suitable for someone recovering with car crash injuries."

Connor threw his arms in the air "I can't win with you!"

Rydel smiled and punched him playfully in the arm before getting up "I'll go make sure everything's alright in the guest bedroom." She said, and disappeared into the bedroom.

Connor still smiled, rubbing his arm where Rydel had hit him.

**_One Week Later_**

"I'm pregnant. I'm actually... oh my, God."

"Yeah. I know. I got that the last one hundred times you said it, and just a little bit when we were at the hospital." Ross said, slightly sarcastically, as he unlocked the door to the apartment.

Ross opened up the door and let Brad in first who was still trying to process it through his mind. Again. It still boggles him and confuses him a little bit that he's actually able to be pregnant and have a baby. Ross shut the door and turned around, rolling his eyes at Brad "Oh, c'mon, it's not that bad. Calm down."

"That's easy for you to say! You only contributed towards making it, you don't actually have to carry it around for nine months and go through everything else you have to go through when you're pregnant. It's horrible."

"Yeah, but... to be fair, the last time you were pregnant, you only had to go through a month and a half of it, so what more would you know about it than that?" Ross asked. Brad stared at him, bemused and a little offended. Ross's eyes widened when he realised "Oh... that came out wrong! That came out very, very wrong. What I was trying to say was that, if you would have had told me before you got shot, we could have avoided it from happening."

"And as I said last week when you found out, if you weren't being stubborn, I would have gotten round to it before we left the diner."

"I was being stubborn?!"

"Yeah, alright, we're not going through that again." Brad said before slumping down down on the couch.

Ross stayed where he was for a few seconds, letting silence take over them both. He could tell Brad didn't look happy, but he didn't look sad either. He looked like he didn't know what to do. He slowly approached the couch and sat down next to him closely, putting his arm around him and letting Brad hug into him. "I'm gonna be honest," Brad said, after a small while "I'm reacting better to it now than I was the first time."

"How did you react to it the first time?" Ross asked.

"Well, I was with James, obviously, and... there was a lot of shouting, crying, more shouting, more crying. I think something broke as well..."

"I don't know if this is a story I wanna hear or not... did someone get hurt? Specifically James?"

Brad shook his head "No. He's too big and strong. I was at the disadvantage of being small so... you could imagine what happened if I did try to hit him or hurt him in anyway."

"What do you mean 'was'? You still are," Ross said, making Brad look up at him and glare "I'm sorry, I'm trying to lighten the mood."

"Throwing insults is not lightening the mood."

"Alright, get back to your sulking," Ross said, pushing Brad's head back down on his chest. Ross stroked his back gently "So... er... what are we gonna do? I mean, I know what we're going to do, because lets face it, I'm not letting you get rid of it."

"Never said I was gonna get rid of it."

Ross nodded "I know, I was just making sure."

Suddenly there was a knock at the apartment door, and Jesse started barking which made them both jump. Brad got up from the couch "Hey, Jesse, shh," he said, going over to her "what's going on with her? She doesn't normally bark when someone knocks at the door."

Ross shrugged, getting up "She's your dog not mine. You've had her longer than I have. Just put her in the bedroom."

Brad grabbed her by the collar and started pulling her gently to his and Ross's bedroom, he went in there with her to make sure she didn't knock anything over or rip anything whilst she was in there. He shut the door behind him.

Ross waited till the bedroom door shut with Brad and Jesse in it before opening the door to reveal Rydel, looking slightly nervous "Oh... That's weird," he looked at the bedroom door, as if looking at Jesse, and back to Rydel. Jesse's never had that reaction to Rydel before... "What are you doing here?"

"You'll see," Rydel said, with a nervous smile "I've been putting this off for quite some time now, and I figured I'd better come to you second before I go to Riker and Rocky who will react the worst when they find it out."

Ross cocked his head "What? Who'd you go to first?" he asked.

"Me," Ellington said, stepping out from the corner. He looked less than impressed as he walked through the apartment door "let me tell you something, Ross. You will not be blaming me when I'm holding you back, because Rydel had a hell of a job holding me back so I didn't rip his throat out." he was better off in the apartment, he still had some anger left in him.

"What?" Ross asked, looking back at Rydel confused.

Rydel sighed "Titus... you can go in."

Ross dropped his hand from the door as Titus came into view, also looking nervous himself. "Oh," Ross said flatly, now seeing the reason why "it's you."

"Yeah... hi..."

"Well, I'm not surprised, I saw you both out together last week." He said, folding his arms and walking into the apartment so Rydel and Titus could come in properly.

Rydel shut the door behind them both "Ross, I know what you're probably thinking—"

"Why aren't I on top of him beating the crap out of him?" Ross asked "yeah, I am. Can you explain that for me? Cos I don't quite understand myself."

"Okay, calm down." Ellington said, grabbing Ross by the arm as he thought he was about to lean forwards and punch him.

"Look, Ross, I'm gonna say the same thing that I told Connor last week when he found out. He's fine. He's completely changed. It was just a mental spur of the moment, but he got over it. He hasn't hurt me since, and it's been like... what? Three, four months? If he was going to hurt me he'd have done it by now." Rydel explained.

Ross turned his head to Ellington. "She told me the same crap as well." Ellington said.

"Please just give him one more chance. For me?"

Again, Ross turned to Ellington. Ellington shrugged "Up to you dude. I said yes just for the fact that if – well, _when_ – he steps out of line again, I get to hit him as many times as I like without getting into trouble or being stopped." He said, having a satisfied smile on his face.

"Oh, I'll hit him anyway regardless of the consequences," Ross faced Rydel and Titus again. He looked Titus up and down, contemplating in his mind. He sighed "You know what. Fine. I'll give him one more chance, but if he does anything to you again," Ross let out a soft laugh "he'll be going more than 6 feet under. And that's before Rocky and Riker get their hands on him."

Titus stepped forwards "Ross, I know you're just trying to protect your sister, but honestly, I've changed," Titus said, before hearing a dog bark "is that a dog?" he asked with confusion. Since when did Ross get a dog?

"It's just Jesse, ignore her." Rydel said, waving towards where it was coming from.

Titus looked at Ross "When did you get a dog?" he asked, trying to make normal conversation with him "did you get one so you weren't alone or something? Cos, I didn't think you were a dog person..."

Ross blinked a few times, he was a little bit confused. Surely Rydel must have filled Titus in on him and Brad, or he must know from when they were The Vamps and R5 with all the news flying around like a plane. "What?" Ross asked, confused "why—why would I be alone?"

"Cos of what happened, which I am very sorry about by the way. When I first heard about it when it happened I started thinking about how hurt and heartbroken you must have been."

"Yep... you've lost me..."

"What happened with Brad... When he got shot outside the diner you always used to go to and died," Titus paused "didn't he? I heard all the rumours. News goes around pretty fast you know."

"Brad isn't—" Ellington went to go say.

Ross put his hand up in front of Ellington, still looking at Titus, cutting him off "No, shush you, let me have some fun," Ross said. He coughed "Oh, yeah. That. I haven't thought about it in so long... I thought I was over it but, apparently not... thanks for that."

"What are you doing?" Ellington asked.

"Telling Titus the story of how Brad died and what happened after. He wants to know, so I'm telling him." Ross said, looking at Ellington dead in the eye in the hope that he'd catch on.

"Oh, yeah!" Ellington said, catching on "I'd almost forgotten about that..."

Rydel stared at Ross and Ellington in disbelief, she wasn't going to ruin their fun. She just thought it was pathetic. She folded her arms and shook her head. "So, yeah, anything else you'd like to know about _that_?" Ross asked.

"Well, I was gonna ask if you ever moved on but... I highly doubt it. You were very in love with him." Titus said, rocking back and forth on his heels a little. He was trying to be gentle and sympathetic without triggering anything with Ross. Ross shook his head. "Did you ever find the person who shot him?" He asked.

Ross cocked his head, looking thoughtful "Actually, now that I'm thinking... no we didn't... Why are American police so shit at the job they do?!" Ross asked, now being serious.

_Knock. Knock._

"Oh my, God, who's that?" Ross asked, going over to the door – this time, Jesse didn't bark "it's like a frickin' party in here—uh oh," He opened up the door "you two gonna be absolutely ecstatic when you walk through this door and see who's here."

Riker became confused "Why..?" Riker asked, walking through the apartment door "what are _you_ doing here?!"

"Having a party apparently because everyone just wants to come to Ross and Br—Ross's place." Ross said, shutting the door and leaning against it with his arms folded.

Rydel stood in between Riker and Titus "Riker, calm down. I can explain."

"Don't tell me you're back dating him," Rocky said, and Rydel said nothing. He rolled his eyes "Are you fucking stupid or something, Rydel? You know how people always say 'blondes are stupid', well congratulations, you're making that statement very, very true right now."

"Why are you dating him again?!" Riker asked, raising his voice "after what he did?!"

"He's different! He's changed so much! He's so much nicer now! As I said before, if he was going to hurt me, he'd have done it by now. I mean, we've been going behind your backs for four months now. I'm surprised you never figured it or found out sooner." Rydel said, also raising her voice.

Ross came away from the door and walked back over next to Ellington, and leaned on the side of the couch as the two boys knew how this was going to play out. "Please, Riker, give him a second chance. A last chance. That's all I'm asking. If he does anything that hurts me or anybody else, I give you permission to beat him until his brains fall out." Rydel said, trying to make her brothers satisfied.

Riker stared at Rydel, and looked at Titus, back to Rydel and back to Titus. He sighed "You can date him if you want, but I'm not giving him a second chance. As far as I'm concerned, Titus Makin does not exist, he isn't even here right now," He said, walking by Rydel and to Ross "where's Brad?" He asked, noticing he wasn't there.

"Riker!" Ross said, noticing the funny look from Titus "you know where he is. Do you not remember what happened outside the diner where Sally use to work?" He asked.

Riker stared at Ross for a few seconds before walking away "I don't even wanna know." he mumbled, realising that Ross was up to something.

"Why are you two here anyway?" Ross asked.

Riker shrugged "We thought we'd come see you for a while. You know? Hang out. Do what brothers do. Maybe go out for a while. Are you up for it?" He asked.

Ross went to respond but:

"JESSE!"

"Fuck," Ross groaned, and threw his head back as he heard Brad shout her name. He turned around and saw the bedroom door fly open, where Jesse came running out barking, going towards Titus. He quickly grabbed hold of her by the collar before Brad came out of the bedroom "Dude, next time shut the bedroom door properly!"

"I did!" Brad said, raising his voice "but she jumped up and hit the door handle and it came open."

Jesse continued to bark in Titus' direction, desperate to slip out of Ross's grip. She went between barking and growling at him. "Jesus Christ, Jesse! Come on!" Ross said, dragging her towards the bedroom. She was hard work, Ross or Brad have never had to deal with her acting like this before "Get in there!" Ross said, finally getting her into the bedroom and shutting the door so she couldn't get out, and she continued to bark.

Brad shook his head and turned around, but jumped a little when he saw all the people who were now in the apartment. He didn't expect that many people to be there even though it was only Ross's brothers, sister, Ellington and... Titus? "Oh, hello," Brad said. He looked in Titus' direction, who couldn't stop staring at him in some sort of way. "Are you alright?" Brad asked.

"What? Why?" Titus asked.

"Because you keep staring at me..."

An awkward silence fell in the room as Riker and Rocky realised what Ross was doing before Brad came out of the room.

Ross eventually broke the silence "Oh, did I forget to mention?" Ross asked, finally piping up. He put his arm around Brad "he lived! Oh, you should have seen your face dude." Ross said, laughing along with Ellington, Riker and Rocky.

Rydel looked at Titus "I can't believe you fell for that." She said, shaking her head.

"Well how was I supposed to know?!" Titus asked "I thought he was gone! And by gone, I mean dead."

Ellington sighed "As funny as that was, I better get going. Anybody else coming?" Ellington asked.

"Yup." Riker said, following him with Rocky.

Leaving just Rydel, Titus, Ross and Brad. Ross took his arm from round Brad who walked over to the sofa, shaking his head, and sitting on it "You play some real sick jokes sometimes." Brad said.

"Yeah, but it was funny. You gotta admit that though?" Ross asked, still laughing "oh, I'm so funny sometimes."

Brad shook his head, laughing a little. He turned to Titus, who was still looked shocked "Calm down. You look more dead than I do," Brad said, making Ross laugh again as well as himself. "Ross, you're gonna die if you keep laughing like that."

"I can't I'm sorry." Ross said, trying to stop.

Rydel rolled her eyes "Okay, you can both grow up and be adults now," Rydel said. She glared at Ross, not liking how he had just acted those few moments ago, she began to head towards the door "I'll see you later Brad." Rydel said, leaving with Titus.

"Hey! I'm here too you know!" Ross said, offended she never said bye to him. The door shut. "What a bitch. If our child turns out anything like her, shoot me. It'll be less painful."

"No it won't."

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><p><strong>Sorry if it felt as though this chapter moved on a little bit too fast, I'm just desperate to get to the main storyline. And now I can finally move onto the main storyline YAY! :D<strong>

**Thanks for reading!**

**ALSO: I made a trailer for this story :) Go to my channel "WOWPZaileyStories101" on YouTube & search for it, it should be the fourth video you come across after a video called "rick ross" or just type in on the search bar "R5/Vamps FanFiction: A Box Full of Secrets (My English Love Affair Sequel) Trailer" :D Hope you enjoy it! :) It's not a good one. I'm not proud of it like I was with the The Last Judgement trailer, I'll probably end up remaking it.**

**Thoughts on Titus & Rydel being back together?**

**Thoughts on why you think Connor can't trust Titus?**

**Thoughts on how Rydel looks after Connor?**

**Thoughts on the Rad baby?**

**Thoughts on Ross leading Titus on to believe Brad's dead?**

**Thoughts on the way Jesse reacted to Titus?**


	10. Favours

**Haiii! I thought I'd update this today seen as though I was supposed to yesterday, but my internet broke so... that went out the window :/ My internet's been breaking a lot lately, so if I don't update that's probably why :)**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 or The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI records!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 10<br>**_Favours_**  
><strong>

**2 Weeks Later**

Connor knocked on the door of Rydel's apartment, standing there for what felt like forever until someone finally came to answer the door. He had a smile on his face, ready to greet Rydel, but it soon fell when he saw Titus answered the door instead. "Oh, it's you..." Connor said, flatly.

"Well hello to you too Connor." Titus said, laughing slightly at the way Connor had greeted him.

Connor walked into the apartment as Titus let him in "Is Rydel in?" He asked.

Titus nodded "Yeah, she's just in the shower now."

"Oh, okay. That's fine. Can you tell her that I've took Tyler and Matty out for a few hours?" Connor asked, going towards the boys bedroom.

"But... me and Rydel were taking them both out today..." Titus said, slightly confused.

Connor turned away from the door, raising his brow "Um... it's my last day in America today. I did tell her I was going to take them out for a while before I left because I haven't spent that much time with them as it is..." Connor said, feeling irritated, but he wasn't showing it.

Titus shrugged "Well, that's why she's in the shower. So we can take them out straight after."

"No people go in the shower to get clean." Connor retorted, sarcastically and harshly. A side of Connor that has never properly shown before. This is new for him.

"Alright, but... unless you want to go argue with her about Tyler and Matty whilst she's naked in the shower, then be my guest." Titus said, holding out his arm towards the bathroom door.

Connor sighed heavily, trying not to show his anger and frustration but it didn't work. Instead, Connor tried to smile nicely, keeping himself contained "Well then, I guess I'll have a word with her later. Before I leave. Which is in like... 6 hours."

Titus nodded. Connor looked Titus up and down, without saying another word, and he left the apartment, slamming the front door as he left. Titus turned away from the front door when he heard the bathroom one open where Rydel came out into the living room, wrapped in nothing but a towel with dripping wet hair "Did I just hear Connor?" Rydel asked.

"Yeah. Why?" Titus asked.

"Has he took the boys?" Rydel asked, looking towards their bedroom. Titus shook his head. "Why not?" She asked "it's his last day in the USA today, he said he was gonna take them out for a few hours."

"Wait... he was?" Titus asked, Rydel nodded "Oh, shit. I'm so sorry, I thought we were taking them out today! I told him that as well! Should I go get him?" He asked, grabbing the door handle.

Rydel sighed and shook her head "No. It's okay. I'll arrange for him to do something with them another time, or for them to go over and see him whilst he's in the UK. I don't know. It's fine, don't worry about it." She shook her head and went to go back into the bathroom when somebody else knocked on the door, she went back into the living room in the hope Connor had come back for some unknown reason.

Titus opened up the door and Ross was stood there. "What are you doing here?" Rydel asked.

"To ask a favour. Hi by the way!" Ross waved at Rydel. He looked Titus up and down with a disapproving look "you."

"What's the favour you want?" She asked.

Ross walked into the apartment and over to Rydel. He glanced back at Titus "Can we talk privately?" He asked Rydel.

Rydel nodded and directed Ross to her bedroom, with Titus watching them as they done so.

Rydel shut the bedroom door behind them both and turned to Ross who was sat on the edge of her bed "What do you want?" She asked.

Ross put his hand into his pocket and pulled something out. He stretched out his arm with it in his hand for Rydel to take. Rydel sighed and walked over to it, taking it out of Ross' hand. She shrugged "It's an ultrasound. What about it?" She asked.

"Yeah, look at it properly, Rydel, that might shine a light on the situation I have and need your help with."

Rydel rolled her eyes and looked back to the ultrasound, looking at the baby that is obviously growing inside someone "Oh, don't tell me you slept with someone and got them pregnant." Rydel said, in disbelief that Ross would do such a thing. Especially to Brad.

"Well... Yeah. But, it depends on who you mean by 'someone'."

Rydel's mouth dropped open and she slapped Ross as hard as she possibly could across the face "You're an ass-hole! How could you do that to Brad?! I thought you loved him!" She shouted.

"OWWWW!" Ross cried out in pain, rubbing his jaw "Fuck sake Rydel! Stop jumping to conclusions and look at the fucking thing properly! FUUUUCK!" Ross cried again. Between the punch Brad's Dad gave him and Rydel slapping him, he's surprised he has a jaw left.

Rydel glared at Ross, shaking her head before looking back at the ultrasound. The ultrasound itself was 2 weeks old, but the baby was nearly a month and a half old. Rydel looked away from it again, ready to fire a snarky comment at Ross about it, but the name in the corner of the ultrasound caught her eye. "What the hell..." She said "is this another one of your sick jokes?" She asked.

Ross shook his head "Nope. But he wishes it was."

Rydel furrowed her brow "Well that's not a very nice thing to think about your unborn child. How the hell is he able to... you know?" She asked, trying to fathom this in her head "I thought it was impossible."

"Not really. He's not the only boy in the world that's gone through it. But I'll give you the detailed explanation later, or maybe he will. This isn't what I came to talk to you about – well, it is... but... yeah."

"What do you want me to do?"

"You see... the thing is, I've been talking to him about it ever since we found out he was-well, is, pregnant. And he doesn't seem to be confident in himself about having the baby as well as being a good Dad to it, and I think he'll do fine. I mean, he's good with Tyler and Matty. I just don't get why he's so scared for."

"Because it is a scary thing, Ross! I should know that." Rydel said.

"Exactly! Which is why I need you to have a 'talk' with him and convince him that he'll be fine, because he won't believe me no matter what I say. Although... now that I think about it, maybe he's scared about it because of what happened last time..." Ross said, looking up thoughtfully.

Rydel raised her brow "What do you mean 'last time'?"

Ross stayed silent for a while, debating on how he was going to tell her this. "He was pregnant before. But... he lost it..."

Rydel's eyes widened "Oh my, God... When? No wonder he was so nice and caring to me when I had my miscarriage in London... I was a little confused by that. But not a whole lot because he is genuinely a nice person."

"Yeah... you know er... when he got shot?" Ross asked, Rydel gasped "alright, Rydel, stop being a drama queen. Will you do what I asked or not?"

Rydel nodded "Yeah, sure. Of course. Just, let me get dressed first and dry my hair. I don't think he'll appreciate me showing up to your place like this."

Ross shrugged "No, but I can think of someone else who might."

Rydel's eyes widened again "Ross, do you realise how dodgy that sounded?" She asked.

Ross was confused for a moment, but his eyes widened when he realised "What? Oh my, God! No! I never meant me-ew! Ew! Ew! Ew! Why don't you just go in the shower before you scar my mind even more!"

"I _have_ been in the shower!"

"You have?" Ross asked.

"GET OUT!"

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><p>"I mean, can you believe him? They're not even his kids! Who gave him permission to say that?!"<p>

Brad rolled his eyes, listening to Connor go on and on about how Titus told him he couldn't spend the day with Matty and Tyler before he left because Rydel was taking them out with Titus. "Will you calm down," Brad said "he probably made a mistake. She's probably taking them out tomorrow with him and he got his days mixed up. And, Connor, in case you forgot, Matty is Titus' kid."

Connor put his hands on the back of the couch from where he stood and looked at Brad in disbelief "Are you sticking up for him?" he asked.

"No... I'm just saying..."

"Then stop sounding like you're sticking up for him!" Connor raised his voice.

Brad didn't even know what to say. He just stared at Connor, shaking his head. On one hand this was absolutely hilarious for Brad by the way Connor was acting, but annoying at the same time. He had bigger things to be worrying about than Connor and his hatred for Titus. "Look, Con, honestly, sit down, and take a good hard look at him. He's doing nothing wrong." Brad said.

"Yes he has!"

"What? Name one thing he's doing wrong right now except for be with Rydel. Not that it's wrong, but, it's the only thing he's doing right now. Quite literally," Brad said, only to receive a pillow in his face after Connor picked one up and threw it at him "seriously?" Brad asked, glaring at him.

"You're speaking like you trust him."

"I do!"

"Why?!"

Brad sighed and put his head into his hands, shaking his head. He lifted his head back up "Because apparently I'm the only one that thinks he has changed apart from Rydel."

"How has he changed?" Connor asked.

"Oh my, God, Connor. Give it a rest. He's nice. Sure, he's a little bit reluctant at times, but that's because he wants to be accepted by us all. Sure, he hurt Rydel before, but he's not doing it now. If he was going to hurt her again, he'd have done it already."

Connor rolled his eyes "Yeah, yeah, that's not a good enough reason, Brad. Why else do you trust him?"

"I didn't say I fully trusted him. Yeah, there is just one small part of me that doesn't trust him bu—"

"Aha!"

"But..." Brad interrupted before Connor could go on "that's only because I know what he did to Rydel and what he could be capable off if you tick him off. He hasn't done anything to me to hurt me, so, I don't see why I shouldn't like him. He doesn't exactly talk to me, so who am I to judge him if he doesn't?"

"Because!"

"Because why?" Brad asked, Connor stayed silent "exactly Connor. Shut up about it."

Connor sighed heavily and collapsed onto the couch in Brad's apartment that he was stood behind. Brad watched him as he done so, and he sighed "Connor," Brad said "are you sure this is just about not trusting Titus? Are you sure it's not about something else?" he asked.

"Like what?" Connor asked, raising his head, looking clueless as to what Brad was talking about.

"Oh, boy, you really don't have one single clue do you." Brad said, staring at him. He was amazed. Very amazed.

"A clue about what?!" Connor asked, getting annoyed again.

Brad shook his head, looking up at the ceiling "Lord, give me the strength," he sighed. There was no point in telling him if he couldn't see it himself. He looked back at Connor "Never mind."

"Brad, I swear to god, I will kill you! Tell me!"

"Well that's not very nice killing me, you won't find out what it is I'm talking about otherwise."

Connor sighed in frustration and threw his head into a pillow, Brad laughed. "All I want is to spend some time with my son and I can't because of _him_. Ugh! I'm telling you Brad, don't have kids. Especially if you and Ross look like you're about to break up. You might never see them or it."

Brad shrugged "Could have done with that warning about a month ago, but whatever."

Connor lifted his head up from the couch "What? Are you two splitting up? Why?! You guys are so good together!"

"Again with jumping to conclusions Connor," Brad said, looking bemused "no, I was talking about the first one."

"Having kids? Why would you be too la—oh. I almost forgot about _that_... Wait. You're pregnant? Again?" Connor asked, Brad nodded "does Ross know this time? Or do you have to get shot again for him to almost find out?"

"Hey!"

"Sorry!" Connor sat up on the couch, Brad rolled his eyes "but seriously, does he know?" Connor asked, Brad nodded "finally! It only took you what? Two years."

"And apparently it's gonna take you longer to—never mind." Brad shook his head.

As Connor went to go question Brad on what he was about to say, there was a knock on the door. Brad looked down at Jesse and she never moved an inch from where she laid, which was on the floor next to Brad – which is something she's been doing a lot lately. Because she never barked and started going crazy, that meant Titus was off the list.

Not that he'd come here anyway.

"Stay put," Connor said, as Brad was about to get up "I'll go get it."

"Why?" Brad asked, confused.

"Because, you're pregnant. And after what happened last time I don't want you to run the risk of you losing another baby." Connor said.

Brad smiled "Aw, that's sweet Connor, but... I don't think opening a door is going to make me lose a baby."

Connor shrugged before going over to the door. He opened it up and his arms folded "Oh, there you are, I want to have a little word with you." Connor said.

Rydel rolled her eyes "Connor, he made a mistake. He thought we were taking them out today. It's tomorrow we are."

"What did I say?!" Brad asked, Connor turned and glared at him "sorry..."

Rydel sighed "The boys are at my place. Stop having a hissy fit and go pick them up and spend some time with them before you have to go. Ross is there looking after them until you get there, so don't worry. No Titus," She said, knowing that Connor doesn't like him even though he promised her he'd give him a second chance "is that alright?"

Connor nodded "Yes, that's fine. Thank you."

"No problem. Now go. I'll see you later when you bring them back." She said, standing out the way so he could leave.

Once Connor was gone, Rydel stepped into the apartment and shut the door behind her. Brad looked up "Huh? I thought you came here to get Connor..." Brad said.

"I came here to talk to you. Connor being here was a bonus."

"What do you want to talk to me about...?"

"Oh, I think you know."

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><p><strong>I thought I'd better save the "Brad &amp; Rydel talk" for the next chapter bc it might be longer than planned, and in my head I think it's gonna be a little bit comical so look forward to that :D Honestly, I loved writing Connor in this chapter, he's like, my favourite ever character to write at the moment, especially with more chapters in the future where he acts this way, &amp; hey, if you like Connor acting like he did in this chapter, then congrats! You're gonna get more hah! Also, if you're reading this an put "apples" at the beginning or the end of your review bc I'm trying to test something out.**

_**PLEASE REVIEW & ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW!**_

**Thoughts on Titus?**

**Thoughts on Rydel & Ross?**

**Thoughts on Connor?**

**Thoughts on Brad during talking to Connor?**

**Favourite Connor moment? Copy & paste! **


	11. Talks & Trust

**HERE I AM WITH ANOTHER UPDATE BC THIS STORY IS ABOUT TO GET VERY INTERESTING & I COULDN'T WAIT ANY LONGER OK NOW READ.**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 or The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI records!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 11<br>**_Talks & Trust_**  
><strong>

Rydel stood at the front door of the apartment for a few seconds before she came over to the couch and sat on it "Come sit next to me." She said, patting the empty space next to her. Brad didn't know how to feel right now. The way everyone was acting today freaked him out, they were either acting jealous or weird for no reason. "Come on I won't bite." Rydel said, again patting the spot next to her.

Reluctantly, Brad got up from where he sat and sat down next to Rydel on the couch, keeping a safe distance between them both. Rydel rolled her eyes "Brad. Sit closer." Rydel said.

"I don't want to, you're scaring me."

"Don't be stupid, there's nothing to be scared about. I won't hurt you," Rydel said, smiling and quite frankly if he could, Brad would be running for the hills right now "sit close to me."

"But—"

"Do it." Rydel said, demandingly as the smile wiped off her face.

Brad scooted closer to Rydel, and she kept giving him a bemused look until he sat right next to her so that there was no gap between them what so ever. Rydel turned on her side on the couch "So, how have you been?" she asked.

"Fine... how've you been..?"

"I've been fantastic."

Brad blinked a few times, trying to decide in his mind why Rydel was here and acting this way "Oh this should be good. What do you want, Rydel?" Brad asked.

Rydel shrugged "Nothing. I've just been talking to Ross that's all," Rydel said, smiling still "and I learnt everything and more today by accident about yours and Ross's 'private' life. Shall we call it that? Cos I feel awkward saying sex life."

Brad shut his eyes and put his head in his hands where he felt his cheeks warming up. Later, when he gets home, Brad is going to kill Ross. Rydel patted Brad's back "Don't worry, I think we all could have had a guess that it's Ross who's the—"

"Yeah, thanks, Rydel. Moving on."

"And now you're pregnant! Congrats!" Rydel said, having her hands up in the air and smiling, whereas Brad just shook his head, mentally plotting Ross's murder in the back of his mind "sorry, I am trying to make this more amusing and funny rather than make it awkward and sad, but you don't look impressed, so obviously it's not working," Rydel scratched the back of her head nervously, Brad shook his head "yeah... I'm not very good at making this less awkward. I should stick to being heart felt shouldn't I?" She asked, Brad nodded "right, okay, then. So, starting from the beginning again. You're pregnant! What's the big deal?" Rydel asked.

Brad shrugged "I don't know. The fact that... I'm a boy maybe?"

"So? You're not the only boy out there that's had to go through it," Rydel said, taking bits of information from what Ross told her about how and why Brad can get pregnant as well as other boys, it's very rare though "think about it. There is probably hundreds of boys out there who were born with male and female parts. Some might not know that because they're straight and with a girl or because they're not – how do I put this without embarrassing you again? - they're the dominant one in a gay relationship. Or they're not the dominant one and have had to go through it, but they've kept it secret. So don't worry, everything's fine." Rydel explained, and tried to reassure him.

"Yeah, but can I keep it a secret?" Brad asked.

"Hell yeah you can!" Rydel said "sure, there's still people out there who know who R5 and The Vamps once were, as well as the members. Yes, they're probably going to see pictures of you and Ross with a random baby that popped out of nowhere. But let them decide where and who it came from. They don't have to know it came from you, do they? It's not like we're famous any more. It won't get spread like wild fire around the world if people who shouldn't do find out, like old fans. Heck, we probably still have fans. Just, they're not as crazy any more. So don't worry about keeping it a secret, that will all work out for itself."

"I guess."

"Now, moving onto the other thing. Why are you so scared of being pregnant? Apart from the fact you're a boy."

"Because of what happened last time. I know I won't get shot again, but there is still that possibility that I could... you know... lose it. And I don't want to go through that again..." He mumbled quietly, but loud enough for Rydel to hear. He didn't want it to be too loud because he didn't want to sound like a... girl. But it's true.

Jesse got up from where she laid on the floor and walked over to Brad, sitting down in front of him and putting her head on his lap as she could tell he looked nervous and upset about something. Brad stroked her head gently. Rydel smiled and stroked her too "Brad, you won't lose it again," she said, now stroking Brads hair "you're not gonna get shot again because there isn't a psychotic gun man on the lose. Just... as long as you don't go to that diner, everything will be fine."

"I haven't been there since. I don't think I'm gonna start going again now."

Rydel nodded "True. But anyway. I know for a fact that baby will be fine growing inside you until it's born – and when it's born – because it's in safe hands. There is no way Ross is gonna let anything happen to you whilst you're pregnant and carrying his child. You've seen the way he protects you already. Imagine what he's going to be like up until the baby's born."

Brad whimpered "Oh no... He's gonna be ten times worse."

"And it's not a bad thing. Especially if you're scared. Honestly, if someone tries to hurt you during this pregnancy or puts you at risk of having a miscarriage," Rydel scoffed "I would not want to be that person when Ross gets their hands on them. He or she will be joining Laura and James up in the sky. Even then they won't be safe because they'll probably kill them too."

Brad let out a soft laugh. "Honestly, you'll both be fine as long as Ross is around," she said, smiling reassuringly at him "and if it makes you feel better, imagine what it'll be like when the baby's growing up. It helped me get through my pregnancy with Tyler and Matty."

"It did?"

Rydel nodded, still smiling "Yeah! It made me look forward to things! Such as when they start proper school for the first time and they won't let go of my leg because they don't want me to leave them. Or when they start High School and they come home petrified because they got a detention for doing something stupid. Trust me, those boys will get up to some stupid stuff when they're older. Or like when they get their first crush and they start telling me about them. Or maybe if one them ends up getting a girl pregnant and I have the satisfaction of slapping them senseless for being so stupid. And there's tons of other stuff as well. Come on, Brad, think! What's going to happen that you'll look forward too when that baby grows up?" Rydel asked.

Brad shrugged "I... I don't know..." He said, trying to think.

"Come on," Rydel said, nudging him "if it's a boy. What's he gonna be like? More importantly, _who's_ he gonna be more like."

Brad threw his head back, looking at the ceiling as he thought about it "I think he'd be a mix of both. Maybe have Ross's personality with, I don't know, my looks and a tiny bit of his too?"

"Now that would be one attractive child. But what about if he's like you? What if he's able to have kids?"

"Then I'm not gonna do what my parents did and keep it a secret from him. I'll tell him as soon as he's old enough to understand. But, then again, I don't think he will. As you said, it's a rare thing and I don't think it'll pass down to him. But, I do think that he'll know how he was born – obviously – and then he'll probably start asking stupid questions like 'what if I can? What If the nurse lied to you? How will I know?' and then Ross will probably put his foot in it and say something like 'as long as you're the dominant one in a gay relationship you'll be fine' which means he basically gives away stuff about mine and Ross's relationship that our son didn't need to know, and Ross scars him for life. I imagine a moment like that would probably happen."

Rydel laughed "Oh, I can so imagine that happening," She said, putting her hand under chin as she became more intrigued "do you think if you had a boy he'd be gay?" she asked.

"I don't know. Probably not. I don't care either way."

"What if you guys had a girl instead?" Rydel asked "what would happen then? Would it be the same?"

"Obviously not, she's a girl," Brad said, laughing a little "I don't know... that's a little bit difficult to think about. I'm not use to being around girls. You're the only girl I'm around, and even then I don't talk to you much. I think this is the most I've talked to you this past month."

"Alright then, I know Ross doesn't like Titus, but what if she gets a boyfriend like him?"

Brad scoffed "I don't think he'd get over the doorstep let alone anywhere near her if that was the case. Ross would probably... I don't know... make him die a slow painful death. Especially if he did to her what Titus did to you all those years ago."

"Well, wouldn't you want to kill or severely hurt the guy who broke your daughters heart and hurt her? I know I would."

"Well, yeah, of course. But, you see, the thing is with me and Ross, I feel like it'd be good cop, bad cop, if you understand?" Brad asked, Rydel nodded "I'd be the nice and calm one that his or her friends, as well as girlfriends and boyfriends, like and can easily talk to whereas Ross would be the one everyone's afraid of because if they do one thing wrong they'd be scared of him going crazy and blowing his top."

Rydel smiled, cocking her head "So tell me again Brad, what's your confidence level now on about having this baby?" She asked.

Brad thought about "Pretty good, I think I'm ready n—wow, you're good!"

"I know."

Connor walked up to the door of Rydel's apartment for the second time today, and instead of knocking on the door like he usually does, he walked in without saying a word. After all, it's only Ross who's in looking after the boys. "Hey, Ross I came to—you're not Ross," Connor said, seeing Titus sat on the couch with Tyler and Matty sat in front of him, and as soon as Tyler saw Connor he ran over to him and hugged him "she lied! Oh that sneaky bitch..."

"Hi, Connor." Titus said.

"Hi. Boys, get your coats we're going out for a while before I have to go." Connor said, ignoring Titus, watching the boys as they got up to do so.

"Connor can I talk to you?"

Connor looked Titus up and down like he was some sort of peasant "No, I'm good thanks."

"Connor, please."

Connor sighed heavily and turned around "Alright, fine, what?" Connor asked.

Titus motioned for Connor to come sit down on the couch with him and he done so. Once they were sat down on the couch together, keeping their distance from one another, a few seconds of silence followed before Titus finally started talking "Look, Connor, I know you don't like me."

"Never. Seriously? Was it that obvious?" Connor asked, sarcastically.

Titus sighed "Just a tad. But, listen, I don't want to keep on having to have this sort of relationship with you where you treat me like I'm dirt whereas I'm actually trying with you."

"Should have thought about that before you rejected your child and beat the crap out of Rydel. Maybe then she wouldn't have ended up with me, in my arms, looking for comfort and help that very night." Connor said. He looked away and had to blink a few times.

Why the hell did he just say that? That's the most snarkiest comment Connor's ever said in his life. Where that came from he has no clue.

"Okay, fair enough. But, I didn't mean too. I was angry, okay? I had a little mental spur of the moment. I'd give anything to turn back the clock and change what happened that day."

"Oh would you now?"

"Connor! Please! Just know that I'm really sorry and I hate myself for what I did, and that I'm lucky enough that Rydel even gave me a second chance. I didn't mean to hurt her. If anything, far from. All I want to do is make her happy and you're making it difficult for me to do that by the way you treat me when you're around. And you're not helping Rydel at all, she feels so awkward and tense when you do that. She's running out of options on what to do. All she wants is for you to accept me and be happy. Don't you want the same for her?"

Connor sighed, tilting his head from side to side like he was debating on it "I... I guess..."

"Then what do you say? Will you start trying with me now?"

Connor squinted his eyes, trying to fight the feeling that was over taking him. He was finding it really difficult to dislike Titus right now. He tried his best to fight the feeling for a few more seconds but sighed and gave in "Alright, fine. I'll try. But not for you or myself. For Rydel. And the fact we basically... share her kids." Connor said, not liking that at all.

"Thank you." Titus said, holding out his hand for Connor to shake.

Connor took his hand and shook it, but he squeezed it tightly to the point Titus cried out in pain and nearly fell off the couch. "Sorry, I just...needed to let that out..." Connor said innocently, and looking it as well.

_**One Week Later**_

Ross sat on the couch of his and Brad's apartment with Brad lying in his arms peacefully, and Ross was convinced that within the next few minutes he was probably going to start drifting off to sleep, which is something he'd been doing a lot ever since he had got pregnant. But hey, it's probably part of being pregnant.

Suddenly, Ross's phone started ringing and it startled them both. They both sat up on the couch and Ross grabbed his phone answering it "Hello?"

"Ross, it's Rydel," Rydel said, sounding pissed and every other annoyed emotion that there was in the world "can you ask Brad to come to mine please?" she asked.

"Why?"

"Because it's to get him into practice and give him a little more confidence about having the baby."

Ross looked at Brad, feeling suspicious and confused "How is him going to yours helping him and getting him into practice?" Ross asked.

"It just is!"

"Why do you even want him to go to yours anyway? What's he gotta do?"

"Look, I just need him to go pick Matty up from Titus' place because Tyler is being a fucking difficult child right now!"

Ross was even more confused "How is Brad going to Titus' helping him and—"

"OH MY GOD ROSS JUST TELL HIM TO COME TO MINE!" Rydel shouted in frustration before hanging up the phone.

"Well that was pleasant..." Ross said, putting the phone down. He turned to Brad who looked confused with his eye brows raised "You need to go to Rydel's. Don't ask why. I'm not quite sure I understand myself. Please don't argue or protest, she doesn't seem like she's in a very good mood."

Brad sighed, getting up from the sofa "Alright. Don't know what she wants though."

"Be careful." Ross said as he walked towards the door.

Brad turned to glare at him "I'm not a child."

"No but you're carrying one. Specifically mine so... be careful."

Brad rolled his eyes. "I love you!" Ross called, but the door shut to the apartment "that was nice..."

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><p><strong>Okay its 4:48 a.m. as I type this right now. I'll come back &amp; Correct grammar &amp; spelling issues later. But all I have to say now is... Let the games begin with this story :) hehe.<strong>

**PLEASE REVIEW & ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW!**

**Thoughts on Rydel at the start?**

**Thoughts on Rydel & Brads relationship in this chapter?**

**Thoughts on Rydel building Brads confidence on having the baby?**

**Thoughts on Connor in this chapter?**

**Thoughts on Rydel getting Brad to go to Titus' to pick up Matty?**

**Thoughts on why you think Tyler is being a difficult child?**


	12. The Difficult Child

**Yes. I'm back with ANOTHER update of this. Why? bc it's getting interesting & exciting that's WHY. So don't blame me if I update this over my other stories :)**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 or The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI records!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 12<br>**_The Difficult Child_**  
><strong>

Brad walked up to the door of Rydel's apartment, listening in, in case she was still in a bad mood and in that case, Brad would turn around and leave. Rydel scares him when she's in a bad mood. He knocked on the door, hoping that when she answered she was calm. When Rydel opened up the door, she seemed pretty calm but still a little bit annoyed "Hi, come in." She said, letting him in.

Brad walked in, seeing Tyler and Mattys bedroom door shut. He turned around "What did you want me to come here for?" Brad asked.

"I need you to do me a favour. Tyler is being a difficult child ever since Connor left to go back to England, and Matty is at Titus' because he spent the night there. And I can't go pick him up if Tyler is being like this. He refuses to leave his bedroom or do anything that involves Titus."

"So... you want me to talk to him or..."

Rydel shook her head "No, no! I need you to go pick Matty up from Titus'. I know it's a lot to ask for especially since you're pregnant, but it's only round the corner, and you can't even tell you're pregnant anyway – unless you know. I would pick him up myself, but seriously, the way he's acting he'll drive you up the wall. So can you please pick Matty up for me?" Rydel asked.

"Sure. I don't see why not." Brad said.

Rydel smiled "Thank you! Here, this is his address." Rydel said, showing him quickly on a piece of paper.

Brad had a look "Alright, I'll be back as quick as I can. See you in a bit." He said before leaving.

As Brad left, Rydels phone started ringing. She turned around and picked it up from where it laid on the couch. "Hello?"

"Hey, Rydel."

Rydel smiled again "Oh, hey, Connor! Hows home?" She asked.

"Great, fine. I'm with Tristan," Connor said, glancing to Tristan who was sat next to him on the couch "he says hi by the way. How are things? Are the boys okay?" He asked.

Rydel sighed heavily, which meant that Connor was about to get an earful making him wish he never asked "I guess. Tyler's being difficult. He has been ever since you left, he won't behave for me what so ever. I think he wants you back here." She said, letting out a small laugh.

"Where is he now?"

"He's in his bedroom. Refusing to leave."

"Oh wow. Where's Matty?"

"Oh, he's at Titus'. He spent the night there and I can't go pick him up because Tyler won't go with me so, I had to get someone else to do it."

"Who?"

"Brad."

"Brad..." Connor said, not liking the sound of that idea and Tristan became confused as to why he was saying Brads name like that "you sent Brad to Titus'..."

"Yeah, why?" Rydel asked, sitting down on the couch "you say it like it's a bad thing. I thought you were trying with him now, Connor."

"No, no! I am trying with him, I swear! But no, it's not... it's not a bad thing that you sent Brad. It's a... surprise. I thought you'd have sent someone else."

"Nope. Brad. Anyway, what are you and Tris up to?"

Connor shook his head "Um, we're just about to go out, so I better go."

"Alright. I guess I'll speak to you another time. Bye." Rydel said before hanging up.

Connor put his phone down on the coffee table in front of him. Tristan stared at Connor suspiciously, mainly because he lied to Rydel. They weren't going anywhere at all, it was like he was trying to escape the conversation with her. "What's wrong?" Tristan asked.

Connor shook his head "Nothing... It's just Tyler, being... difficult I guess. And er, Matty spent the night at Titus' and because Tyler refuses to leave his room, Rydel sent Brad to go pick Matty up."

"So?" Tristan shrugged "what's the big deal?"

"He's pregnant."

"Again?!"

It's funny how Tristan can go from caring about his friend to judging another in the space of a millisecond. Connor rolled his eyes "Yeah, he is, Ross knows this time before you start asking questions."

"Still! Why's that a big deal if he's going to Titus'?" Tristan asked.

"I just... I don't know. I told Rydel I trust Titus now and that I'm gonna at least try with him. But... I don't think I do trust him still."

"Connor, you're being paranoid. You're letting your trust issues with Titus get in the way of seeing if he's actually a decent person or not. I think from what you've told me you're the only one not accepting of him. And if I was Rydel that would annoy the shit out of me. Do you really want to be that person?"

Connor shook his head "No..."

"Exactly. Stop. Just give him one last chance and wait until he blows it, then you can do whatever the hell you want to him for blowing that chance. And if we know Titus Makin the way we know him, he'll probably blow that last chance pretty soon."

Brad knocked on the door of, what he hoped was, Titus' place. He doesn't have a very good photographic memory so he probably should have took the piece of paper that Rydel showed him, because he could have got the wrong house and now be standing at some psychopaths door.

Luckily for him, it wasn't the wrong house and Titus answered a few seconds after he had knocked. His face went from normal to surprised when he saw Brad "What are you doing here?" He asked.

"Rydel sent me to pick up Matty because she couldn't. She's busy with Tyler, he's being a little bit of a... pain, should we call it?"

Titus appeared to be nervous slightly, but Brad didn't take much notice. Instead of wasting time at the door, Titus let Brad in "Er, yeah, I'll um... Just go get his stuff together from last night. It's all over the place. He's a messy child."

Brad laughed a little, seeing some of Mattys stuff all over the living room. He wasn't wrong. As soon as Matty saw Brad he got up from where he was on the floor playing before running over and hugging him round the legs. "Hey, Matty," Brad said, hugging him back as best as he could "do you wanna help put your stuff away?" Brad asked, he shook his head "of course you don't. Tell you what, I'll just help instead."

He helped Titus get Mattys things together that were in the living room, and it wasn't a lot so it didn't take very long. "Is that it?" Brad asked, seeing it had all been collected.

"No. There's some stuff in the bathroom, and he was playing hide and seek with one of his toys before in my bedroom this morning. Yeah, he thought it would be hilarious to hide it in my drawers somewhere. Do you mind looking whilst I get the stuff in the bathroom? It shouldn't take long."

Brad shook his head and Titus pointed him in the direction of his bedroom.

When Brad walked into the bedroom, the door shut behind him by itself. Brad walked over to the first set of drawers that he seen. He pulled the top drawer open and started looking through it, where all there was were shirts, and then he realised Matty isn't tall enough to each the top drawer of a set of drawers, and probably won't be until he's at least eight.

Brad shook his head at himself. He probably hid it in the bottom one.

Brad pulled open the bottom drawer and started digging through it to find this toy Matty had hidden, and he had hidden it good, Brads not gonna lie. He put his hand in without looking and started digging around, pulling things out and putting them back in when he realised it wasn't a kids toy, but it was something else.

"Well that's suspicious..." Brad said as his hand landed on something. Something that did not feel right to him what so ever.

He grabbed hold of whatever it was and felt it a bit more but he couldn't make out what it was. It had some sort of a handle, he knows that much. That was when he decided to pull it out from the drawer and have a look, which was when his eyes nearly dropped out of his head, his heart started beating faster and he froze when he saw he was holding... a gun.

Why the hell does Titus have a gun?

"Okay, calm down, it's fine, it's fine." Brad said quietly to himself, going to put it back into the drawer.

But it was too late. Titus had already walked into the bedroom and saw it in Brads hand, and he slammed the door shut behind him. "Why have you got that?" Titus asked, snatching it off him.

"Oh, I er... I was just looking through the drawers like you told me too and I felt that, I wondered what it was and pulled it out. But er, don't worry! I won't er... I won't tell anyone. I'm sure you have a good explanation as to why you have it."

"Like what?" Titus asked, having the gun in a position that worried Brad even though it wasn't aiming at him. Thank god.

The last time that happened it ended badly.

"Like e-er... er... um... a family member passed it down to you," Brad said, trying to come up with excuses because he was petrified right now, even though he knows Titus won't hurt him. Hopefully. But by the look Titus is giving him, Brad really begs to differ right now. "Or er... you have it for protection in case someone breaks in! Everyone has some sort of protection in case someone breaks in! Me? I have a dog. And Ross. You have a gun," Brad said, but he saw the look on Titus' face that told him differently "yeah... you have the gun just for the hell of it don't you..."

"Why else do people have guns, Brad?"

"Because they're a police man... a farmer... a terrorist..." Brad said, looking thoughtful. He wasn't calling Titus a terrorist, he was just thinking of reasons. But somehow those reasons weren't getting him very far. "A drug dealer... um... a psychopath... I don't know! You could be either one of them!" he panicked.

Titus glared at Brad before he held up the gun and aimed it at him. Brads eyes widened and his arms flew up in the air "That came out wrong! That came out very wrong!" Brad said, getting louder because of how scared and panicked he was becoming.

"Did it now?"

"I-I'm gonna get severely hurt right now, aren't I?"

"Quite possibly if you keep on going the way you do. Maybe more if you're just that lucky."

Brad started to look around the room, without moving, for ways to get out of this place as well as the situation he found himself in right now. All he wanted was to pick up Matty and take him home.

He didn't want deja vu from two years ago.

Although the bonus this time is that he knows he's going to get shot if he's not careful and he can actually get himself out of this situation if he thinks carefully and doesn't open his big mouth at the wrong time. "Y-you know..." Brad said, trying to be careful "Rydel. She's waiting for me to drop Matty off. She's gonna be wondering where I am..."

"So?"

"So?" Brad asked, not sure where to take it next. He honestly thought that would help him by mentioning Rydel. "So erm... Ross? Ross! He knows I'm out too! And I'm sure if I'm not home soon he'll call Rydel and she won't hesitate to tell him where I went. Oh, trust me, if you hurt me in anyway right now, I would not want to be you if Ross found out. He will not be happy and he'll probably hurt you more than you hurt me. And that's probably a well known fact by a lot of people. Not gonna lie."

"Is that a threat?"

Brad shook his head "What? No! Of course not! I'm just saying... Ross can be a scary person sometimes... He may not look it but... he has his moments. And he has one heck of a punch and this isn't helping me what so ever." _Shut the fuck up, Brad _he thought to himself.

Titus glared at Brad before grabbing hold of him and throwing him as hard as he could against the wall where he pressed the gun into his stomach. Suddenly, because somehow this slipped Brads mind when it's all he's been thinking about lately, he remembered that he was pregnant and began to panic even more now that the gun was against him. "Don't threaten me, because I will do it." Titus said.

Brad looked over to the bedroom door, hoping that it would fly open and someone would walk in. But it didn't look like it was gonna happen. Then he heard slight movement from the living room. "You won't do it..." Brad said "Matty's next door. If he hears a bang, he's gonna come wandering in here and he'll wonder why I'm on the floor bleeding to death. And he's a kid, so I know for a fact he won't keep his mouth shut about it to Rydel. You know how kids are. Well, actually, you don't because you've only been in his life for, what? Three? Four mo—"

Before Brad could finish that sentence, Titus cut him off by hitting him across the face and pressing the gun into him more "Don't you dare. I know you won't keep quiet about it either," Titus said, pausing "besides, what makes you think I won't do it?" Titus asked, beginning to smirk which worried Brad a lot "am I allowed to let you in on a little secret? Just one. It can be our little secret."

Brad couldn't really protest given that he was pressed against the wall being held at gun point, so he had to know this 'secret'. Titus leaned in and put his lips to Brads ear when he whispered:

"It was me who shot you outside the diner."

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><p><strong>Not gonna say a word, i'm just gonna let you all have a fit in the reviews :)<strong>

**ALSO: If this gets enough reviews, I'll update the next chapter later today ;) **

_**PLEASE REVIEW & ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW!**_

**Thoughts on Tyler?**

**Thoughts on Tristan?**

**Thoughts on Brad towards the end at Titus'?**

**And the rest, I shall leave you all to have a little shit storm in the comments about it :)**


	13. Danger

**So, I reckon I got enough reviews for the last chapter that you all freaked out about. So, I'll let you all have a fit about this one as well :)**

**Enjoy.**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 or The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI records!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 13<br>**_Danger_**  
><strong>

Brad quickly pushed Titus away from him, out of fear and luckily it caught him off guard which resulted in him dropping the gun on the floor "What?" Brad asked.

"That was quite a nice moment you and Ross were sharing. It was almost too perfect. You and him."

Suddenly, Brad started shaking and trembling to the point where he was nearly crying where he realised Connor had been right all along about Titus "W-why? Why me? What have I ever done to you?"

"Nothing. It was Ross."

"You meant to shoot Ross?" Brad questioned.

Titus shook his head "No! I meant to shoot you. See, me and Rydel were perfectly happy. Until he brought you into our life's and messed it up completely."

"How did I mess you and Rydel up?" Brad asked, confused "you did that yourself when you rejected her when she was pregnant with Matty."

"Because Ross bringing you into our life meant bringing Connor too! You brought Connor, and he messed it up by getting her pregnant and ruining our relationship, and that hurt me, Brad. It hurt a lot," Titus began to explain, and started to pace thoughtfully too "so... I started thinking. How can I hurt Ross? I could break you both up – tried that. Poor James. Isn't he smart enough to tell when a drinks been spiked with something? He really couldn't handle his drink that night, could he? But more importantly, he can't control himself being around the person he has feelings for... can he?" Titus asked, smirking.

"Oh my, God..." was all that Brad could get out right now. He had the strangest feeling that night something was up with James because Tristan and Connor were nowhere as near as drunk as James was.

This was really coming together and beginning to make sense now.

"But wait a minute," Titus said, holding up his hand "Ross and Brad are too strong to not to pull through it so they have to go meet at the diner so they can fix things and get back together. Not on my watch! Now. It was either I shot you when Ross wasn't around, but I figured, him watching you die slowly and in pain had to hurt him more than anything to the point where he would have probably killed himself. Going to join his precious little Brad up in the sky and six feet under. Oh, wait a minute. I failed. Cos you lived. I got back with Rydel because I do love her, even though it might seem hard to believe. And Connor..." Titus laughed a little "oh bless Connor, he's so blind to his own feelings isn't he? She always went on and on about him and Tyler whenever she got the chance when we first got back together because she thought I was fine with him. It was irritating. He's irritating. So you know what I did?" He asked.

Brad stayed against the wall, looking down, he didn't want to move in case Titus attempted to hurt him again "What?" Brad asked, quietly.

"I have a friend who lives in England. He's very loyal—well was... and guess what. He makes a living by fixing cars."

Brad raised his head and his eyes widened "No way... You didn't..."

"But unfortunately, he's not a good enough car expert. Otherwise Connor would have perished along with James, not that I wanted James dead, but, whatever."

"You got your friend to mess with James' car so that he'd crash and kill them both by accident..." Brad said, and Titus looked at him like it was the most obvious thing in the world "you killed him."

"It was meant to be Connor! Again, I failed. Well, my friend failed me. But, I have killed someone. That went pretty well."

"Who?" Brad asked, looking just about done.

"Do you remember the name Laura Marano?"

Brad nodded "Yeah, she died because she got sho—oh my, God," Brad ran his hands through his hair "I'm gonna be sick."

Titus bent down to the floor and picked the gun back up, aiming it at Brad and ready to press the trigger "And Ross still needs hurting, he and Connor are the only problems left that need dealing with, and I can make sure that Ross is hurt and it happens. Right now."

Brad heard Titus pull the hammer back on the gun quickly and his next move was to pull the trigger and that was it. He'd be dead. He started crying a little and began to panic, and as soon as Titus' finger went on the trigger Brad held his hands out in front of him as if it would defend him before shouting:

"I'M PREGNANT!"

Titus stopped what he was doing and lowered the gun "You're what?"

Brad breathed deeply, he honestly didn't think Titus was going to pay attention to that and that it would help save his life "I said I'm pregnant. Would you really want to kill someone carrying a child? Or better yet be known as a baby killer as well as a murderer?" he asked.

Titus didn't know what to say to that. He knew something was up with Brad by the way he was acting lately and the things Rydel would talk to Ross about over the phone, and he does vaguely remember her mentioning a baby one time which confused him. A lot. But now it makes sense. And even though Titus may be cruel and evil, he does not want to be known as a baby killer.

At this point Brad had tears rolling down his face non stop because he had finally let the fear get to him emotionally "Oh, wait a minute, it's too late for that!"

"What do you mean..?" Titus asked.

"I was pregnant the first time you shot me. You killed the baby instead of me. So technically, Titus, you did kill someone that day."

After that, Titus stayed silent. "I'm going. I'm taking Matty home." Brad said, wiping his eyes as he walked towards the bedroom door to exit.

Before Brad got the chance to exit, Titus quickly grabbed Brad by the back of his hair tightly so he couldn't move and pressed the gun to his stomach again, making Brad cry out in pain "Alright then, I killed a baby. Wouldn't make a difference if I killed a second. But, I'm not gonna do it right now. I'm gonna let you go. But if you breathe a word about this to Ross, or anybody for that matter, I will not hesitate to kill the baby. And what the heck... I won't hesitate to kill Ross either." Titus then pushed Brad away from him.

Brad turned to face Titus "Leave Ross out of this. Better yet, leave our baby out of this. This has nothing to do with them both. It doesn't even have anything to do with me! But if you want to hurt someone that badly because of this, hurt me. I don't care what you do to me as long as you leave them both alone." Brad said, which was kind of a trick because Titus can't hurt Brad without hurting the baby whilst he's pregnant.

"Alright, fine. If you breathe a word to Ross, I'll kill all three of you. But, I'll make sure yours is slow and painful so you get to watch Ross and your baby die slowly and painfully." Titus smiled at him.

Without another word, Brad quickly left the bedroom – now a complete emotional wreck – and he rushed over to grab Matty's things together as well as Matty. "C-come on, Matty, we're going." Brad said, trying to stop crying in the hope Matty wouldn't notice, but he probably would.

Brad held open the front door and let Matty go out first before grabbing his hand where he walked with him as fast as he could away from Titus' house. "Why are you crying?" Matty asked, looking up at his Uncle.

Brad looked down at him, wiping his eyes but nothing was stopping the tears, Titus had really frightened him "N-no reason. Don't worry about it. It just happens every now and then. I-it's fine."

* * *

><p>Rydel sat on the couch watching TV with Tyler, after he had finally finished his temper tantrum in his room. He seemed calm and content now, given that he was watching cartoons. Sure Rydel would prefer to be watching something else right now but kids cartoons are amusing. Especially when the kids don't get the little sneaky innuendos.<p>

Out of nowhere there was a loud, quick knock on the door that made her jump. She got up from the couch and opened up the door "Oh, hey—Brad, what's wrong?" She asked, noticing he was crying.

Brad shook his head "N-nothing. I'm fine. Here, there's Matty and his things. I gotta go." he said, quickly and sounding shaken and petrified.

Rydel grabbed hold of Brad by the arm "No, Brad, you're hysterical! Something's wrong! What's going on?!" She asked, trying not to let go of him.

Brad fought Rydel's grip, for a girl she is quite strong, and he pushed her away "I'm fine!" He said before quickly walking away, even though he wasn't. He absolutely petrified of what was going to happen next for him because of Titus. Not only did he fear for his own life, but he feared for Ross and the baby's too. Even more than his own.

"Brad!" Rydel called, stepping out the door after she had stumbled back from being pushed by him. Rydel sighed heavily and went back into the apartment, shutting the door behind her "Matty, Tyler, go to your room for me please," she said, waiting till the bedroom door had shut.

She grabbed her phone off the side and dialled a number as fast as he could "Ross? Ross! It's Rydel," Rydel said as he answered the phone, she didn't even give him chance to say hello "don't panic! But there's something wrong with Brad."

"What do you mean there's something wrong with him?" Ross asked, sitting up straight on the couch "is he hurt?"

Rydel shook her head "No, no! He's on his way home – I think. He just came to mine after dropping Matty off and he was crying hysterically. He sounded petrified, and I don't know why. I think something happened whilst he was out."

"How long ago was this?" Ross asked.

"Just now. Ross, he did not look okay. And those were definitely not pregnancy hormone tears."

"Alright, alright. I'll make sure he's okay when he gets home. Thanks, Rydel. I'll talk to you later or something." He said before hanging up.

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><p>When Brad got to the front door of his and Ross's apartment, he thought he would have calmed down a bit and let what had just happened with Titus slide a little. But he hadn't calmed down at all. He was still scared and crying, so no doubt when he walked through the door and Ross saw him he'd be asking questions and be all over him, and Brad wouldn't know what to say. The reason he hadn't stopped crying was probably because of the pregnancy hormones, otherwise he would have stopped at least when he had left Rydels apartment.<p>

He decided that when he opened the door, he was going to make a B line for the bedroom and slam the door shut. That way, Ross would be able to tell he's in a bad mood – even though he's not – and he'll leave him alone until at least Brad has stopped crying. Hopefully.

He put his keys in the door and unlocked it quickly, once he was in the apartment he threw the keys on the table and slammed the door shut, about to make a break for the bedroom.

"Brad!"

As soon as Ross said his name, he ignored it and ran straight for the bedroom. But unfortunately, Ross jumped into his path and grabbed him by the arms so he couldn't move "Brad! Brad! BRAD! Look at me! What's wrong? Why are crying?" Ross asked.

"L-let go of me!" Brad cried, trying to fight his grip. Ross wasn't like Rydel, unfortunately Ross could actually hold Brad so he couldn't move or escape.

"Not until you tell me why you're crying and why you looked so petrified at Rydels!"

Brad still refused to do so "Just let me go!" he yelled, crying and trying to get out of his arms.

Eventually Brad just gave up and collapsed into Ross's arms, crying his eyes out and sinking to the floor with Ross holding him tightly. Ross hugged Brad tightly and closely "It's alright, it's okay," Ross kissed his head "whatever happened between here and Rydels, it's fine, you're safe now. You're fine. I won't let anybody hurt you."

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><p><strong>All aboard the Titus Makin hate train WOOT WOOT! but yay for Rad at the end. Awe. <strong>

**PLEASE REVIEW & ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW IF YOU WANT THE NEXT ON! :D**

_**Thoughts on Titus being the cause of everything gone wrong in MELA & this story? (death, rad breaking up etc. remember I changed Laura's death in MELA)**_

_**Thoughts on Brad trying to defend himself?**_

_**Thoughts on Connor being in danger of Titus?**_

_**Thoughts on Titus threatening to kill Ross?**_

_**Thoughts on Rydel calling Ross?**_

_**Thoughts on Rad?**_

_**Do you guys want Ross to find out about what Titus did in this chapter as well as him shooting Brad in MELA?**_


	14. Australia

**I am officially done with Bradley Simpson, my fanfiction's & the parallels he & his band cause for this story. Basically, they uploaded a video of their bloopers of 2014. & it got to a part where they were getting ready for the Cecilia video & the make-up artist was putting something on Brad's stomach which meant he had to sorta lean back and put his stomach out &... you can guess the words that followed after. It was funny, but like... I don't know. You'd understand if you knew me better lol. If you wanna watch the video go to youtube & go to The Vamps channel & look for "The Vamps Bloopers 2014" or something like that. **

**It is worth watching not just for that. Just watch it anyway lol. Connor is a little ball of sunshine in it. Bless him. He & Brad are so funny together. & Tristan when he tried to jump over James but ended up crashing into his knee instead. It's hilarious, just go watch it if you're having a bad day or need a good laugh. Honestly, it's the best thing ever. Even if you don't like/know who The Vamps are (even though you've all been reading this & MELA for the past few months so it'll be a little surprising if you don't lol but still some of you could be new readers & haven't read MELA \o/)**

**Enjoy this chapter :)**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 or The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI records!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 14<br>**_Australia_**  
><strong>

After crumpling to the floor in a sobbing mess, Ross and Brad stayed that way for at least five minutes until Ross finally got him to calm down. He didn't question Brad on why he came in the way he did and why he was crying in the first place, he just let him get on with whatever he was going to do anyway when he got back home. And because it was getting late, he decided to go in the shower.

Whilst he was in the shower, Ross waited for him in the living room because he was going to ask Brad what had happened whilst he was out at wherever he went. It was weird. Ross has never seen him so distressed before, but that's probably because the hormones from being pregnant were getting to him as much as whatever else.

Ross waited for at least thirty minutes for him to get out of the bathroom, but he hadn't which had him worrying. He got up from the couch and went into the bedroom, seeing Brad had come out of the shower and was stood with his back facing the door in nothing but his bottoms. He looked like he was fixed in some sort of trance.

Ross sighed and walked over to him, wrapping his arms around his stomach gently and resting his chin on his shoulder "Is everything okay?" He asked.

"Hm? Er... Yeah. Sorry, I was just... lost in my own world for a moment."

Ross smiled weakly and let go of him. He took his hand and sat on the edge of the bed, making Brad stand in front of him "What's wrong? What happened? Did someone try to hurt you or something?" Ross asked.

"I don't... I can't..."

Ross gently pulled him a little closer to him "It's alright, take your time."

"I don't want to talk about it." Brad said, seeing that was the easiest way to avoid not telling Ross at all. He'd rather Ross lived a little bit longer than have his life shortened by a good 60 years.

Ross sighed. He didn't like that Brad was keeping something from him that was obviously causing him to be upset when he could probably do something about it. But, if he couldn't talk about it because it was that upsetting then he respected that. "Will you tell me tomorrow? Or at least another time?" Ross asked, looking directly up at him from where he sat.

Brad nodded "Yeah." He spoke, but it came out as a whisper, even though he knew it was a lie. As long as Titus was around, Brad would be saying nothing to Ross.

Ross smiled up at him. He went to go kiss Brad's slowly growing bump but stopped when he saw something suspicious on it and made his blood boil just a tiny little bit. Ross pointed to it, only just touching "What's _that_?" Ross asked.

"What's what?" Brad asked, confused.

"That," Ross asked, now touching it "you have a bruise on your stomach as well as a mark from something. What the hell is it?"

Brad looked down and he noticed it, realising it was a bruise from how hard Titus pressed the gun into his belly and the mark was from the end of the gun where the bullet comes out. Now he was dropped in it. He sighed and shut his eyes.

Ross stood up "Okay. I don't care how upsetting it is for you, but you're gonna tell me now because whatever happened, _that_ is not okay. Now what the hell happened?" Ross asked, getting annoyed.

Brad stayed silent for a while, trying to say something but he couldn't "I can't... I can't tell you. I'm sorry."

"Of course you can tell me. It's not that hard."

"I know I can, but... I'm choosing not to."

"Why?"

"Because... You don't understand." Brad said, his voice cracked.

Ross sighed heavily "Can you at least tell me what the mark and bruise is from?" Ross asked. Brad shook his head. "Why not?!" Ross asked, raising his voice "it's not gonna kill you to tell me!"

"No, but it'll kill you!" Brad retorted back subconsciously. His eyes widened when he realised what he had just said and he covered up his mouth with his hands.

"What do you mean it'll kill me..?" Ross asked, suspiciously and seeing Brad looked close to tears again "as in, it'll hurt me, kill me? Or physically and actually kill me?" He asked, Brad nodded "physically kill me?" Brad nodded. Ross sighed "Brad, no pun intended but, what the hell happened last night?"

"Last night? It was tonight... And really? Seriously?"

"Sorry. I just... wanted to say it. It's not exactly the best time, I know... I have more, but—no, off topic! Seriously, tell me now! Did someone threaten you? Because they've clearly hurt you! And almost hurt the baby too, and that's crossing the line. Now tell me. What. The. Hell. Happened. Las-tonight?"

Brad sighed, wiping his eyes as he felt the tears coming on again. "I got held at gun point because I ran into someone I shouldn't. That's what the bruise and the mark is. From the gun." Brad said, half lying.

"What?! By who?!" Ross asked, Brad stayed silent as tears began to roll down his cheeks "Brad, tell me now because they are not going to live to see another day if they hurt you again!"

"And neither will you," Brad said, crying and Ross stared at him "they said if I told you what happened they'd kill you and the baby. And I don't want that, Ross, I really don't!" he started to sob.

Ross wrapped his arms around him again and hugged him "Was the person just a regular mugger or – dare I say it – have they done this before?" Ross asked, feeling Brad nod "they've done it before?" Ross asked, furrowing his brow and Brad nodded again "when..?"

"About... 2 years ago."

Ross furrowed his brow "2 years ag-?" Ross stopped. He slowly pulled away from the hug and looked down at Brad "What? Are you freaking kidding me?" Ross asked, starting to feel more angry than he had done before "it was the guy who shot you?" he asked, Brad nodded "you know who he is?" Ross asked.

"Yeah."

"Tell me."

"No."

"Why?!"

"Cos I told you why! I don't want anything to happen! As long as I don't tell you who he is then you and the baby are fine! That's all that matters to me. Please. Just drop it. At least I've told you what happened. Can we please just leave it?"

Ross nodded with a sigh, sitting back down in front of Brad "Alright, fine. But, you will tell me once you realise he can't do that to you, right?" Ross asked, Brad nodded. Ross smiled "Good," he put his arms around Brad and kissed his belly "because as long as I'm around, I'm not gonna let anybody hurt you both. Okay?" Ross asked, Brad nodded slightly smiling now "good. Now come on. I'm going to bed, I think you need to, too." he said, grabbing his hand, even though they were at the bed.

"Yeah, I will. I'm just gonna get a top."

"Why? You're fine the way you are. Stop being so insecure you croon."

"Croon?"

"I don't know. I'm tired. I want sleep." Ross said before climbing into bed and making sure Brad followed him. Once they were in bed, Ross scooted closer to Brad so that his arms wrapped around him "Goodnight. I love you." Ross pecked his cheek, given he couldn't reach his lips.

Brad sighed, feeling Ross place his hands happily on his stomach "I love you too." Brad said, it more coming out as a mutter.

After a good few minutes of complete silence, Brad suddenly turned around in the bed and kissed Ross on the lips which took him by surprise given he had his eyes shut. "I love you."

Ross laughed a little "Alright, okay. I kinda got that message. I love you too."

Brad shook his head "No, no. I do. I really love you and I don't feel like I show it enough sometimes and I hate myself for it."

"Brad..." Ross groaned, stroking his hair where he laid "you're being ridiculous. And hormonal."

"No I'm not. You would literally do anything for me and have done stuff for me, whereas I've barely done a single thing. I mean, I'd like to do anything for you, I really do. I just... I'm not very good at showing that I love you and... I really do. A lot. Like... a whole lot."

Ross smiled, putting his arm around Brad "Well, I know you love me. Otherwise you wouldn't be here right now and you wouldn't have said yes when I asked you to marry me in the spectacular way that I did it."

"Spectacular?" Brad questioned, resting his head on Ross's shoulder and looking up at him "do you not remember how that went down?"

"Shut up," Ross said, looking bemused. He shook his head and went back onto the subject "You don't have to do massive things to show you love me, it's the small things that count, you know? I mean, I'm me. I'll do anything for the old lady next door let alone you. I'm just that kind of person. But, I did get one thing wrong and so did you. You have done something massive for me – even though you didn't have to – and that's something I'll never be able to do or repay you for."

"What's that?"

Ross rolled his eyes "What's that?" Ross asked, putting his hand on Brad's stomach.

Brad looked down and back at Ross "My stomach."

"Nice one, points," Ross said sarcastically "what's inside it?"

Brad furrowed his brow, looking around confused "I don't know... Blood... Food? Acids? Some other science stuff I don't know."

"Oh my, God, Brad! I'm supposed to be the blonde one in this relationship, not you! In fact, I _am_ the blonde one in this relationship!" Ross said, letting out a heavy sigh "I'm talking about the baby you fool."

"Oh, that makes more sense..."

"No, seriously. I don't know any other guy out there that would be willing to be pregnant – even if it's because they can get pregnant and have the parts too – and keep the baby. You don't have to do it, but you are. And I love you for that, and it's also why I'm being a little bit over protective lately."

"Lately?" Brad questioned, raising his brow.

"Alright, more than usual," Ross corrected himself "I just don't want you getting hurt whilst going through this. Especially because of what happened last time. And if anything happens to you whilst going through this, I will feel so guilty knowing I could have stopped it. That's how I know you love me otherwise you wouldn't be carrying that baby. Heck, if Ellington was pregnant with my baby – he wouldn't do it! I know for a fact he wouldn't! He'd get scared. So shut up, and stop being ridiculous." he softly kissed Brad's lips.

Brad smiled at him "I love you."

"I love you too. Now go to sleep." He said, letting Brad rest his head on his chest.

* * *

><p>Ross knocked on Rydel's apartment door the next morning. He'd woken up at a pretty decent time, but Brad was fast asleep so he quietly snuck out of the apartment so he could come and speak to Rydel. He knocked on the door again "Rydel!" Ross called.<p>

"Alright, come in!" Rydel called. She was almost at the door, but given it was Ross and he was being impatient, he might as well come in by himself.

Ross walked into the apartment, seeing it looked like she had just gotten up. He could hear Tyler and Matty in their room. "What do you want?" Rydel asked, leaning against the wall "did you find out what happened to Brad?"

Ross nodded "Yeah, wherever you sent him too yesterday, he bumped into someone and they held him at gun point, threatening to kill me and the baby if he told anybody."

Rydel gasped, standing up straight "You're kidding me?! Who was it?" She asked.

"The person who shot him two years ago. And he won't tell me who because he's that scared of something happening," Ross sighed "where the hell did you send him to yesterday?" Ross asked.

"I only sent him to go pick Matty up." Rydel said, starting to feel bad.

"Where from?!"

"Titus'."

Ross's face fell to confusion "Titus'? He only lives round the corner! How could someone hav—" Ross stopped mid sentence, becoming slightly suspicious.

Rydel waited for Ross to finish the sentence but it didn't look like he was going to. She sighed "I don't know. Titus' area can be rough sometimes. You gotta admit that," She said, then letting out a sigh "damn. Small world, huh? I'd have thought the police would have caught the person who did it by now."

"So would have I..."

The door to Rydel's apartment opened once more and they both turned around, seeing Titus walk through the door. "Titus," Ross said, Titus looked over to him "was Brad okay when he was at yours picking up Matty yesterday?" Ross asked, walking slowly over to him.

"Yeah... Why?" Titus asked.

Ross shrugged "Just wondering, because... He came home quite hysterical yesterday. And not with laughter, I mean with tears," he folded his arms, rocking back and forth a little bit as he was centimetres in front of Titus "I was er... you know... just wondering if you knew anything? That's all." Ross said, giving him the suspicious and curious eyes.

Titus squinted at him "Yeah... he was completely fine."

"Did he leave fine?"

Titus nodded "Yeah. He was fine. He left fine! No tears. He came into my house a happy Bradley Simpson and left one too. Is that it for questioning time?"

"Good," Ross said, nodding "I'm glad. Because you know... he is my husband after all, and I do love him very, very much. And... when people hurt the person I love, very, _very_ much, it's my job to make sure the person that hurt them gets hurt... very, very much," Ross smiled at him "is that understood?" Ross asked.

Titus saluted him "Understood."

"Good," Ross turned to Rydel, still smiling "I'm glad you're back with this one, Rydel. He's a keeper. But, I'm gonna be off now," he said, going to the door and putting his hand on it. He sighed "Bye, Rydel," he looked at Titus and looked him up and down "you." Ross glanced at Rydel one more time before exiting through the door.

Rydel had to blink a few times "I swear to god he was dropped as a baby."

Titus kept his eyes fixed on the door "Yeah... You're telling me," he said, pausing for a short while. He turned to Rydel "Listen, I need to talk to you about something."

"Sure, what about?" Rydel asked.

"You know after everything happened about 3 years ago?" Titus asked, Rydel nodded "I left with my family to go to Australia to live. And, this year I only just got the money to come back because I wanted too. Heck, it's a lot of money for a one-way plane ticket from Sydney to LA, I'm telling ya."

"And?" Rydel asked, not seeing the relevance in this.

"And I wanna go back there to see my family. But the problem is, I'd have to live there for good, and I don't exactly want to come back. It's not very often me or my parents get the money to fly from a country like that to here – and they want to see me too."

Rydel raised her brow "You're leaving? For good?" Rydel asked, not sure how to feel about that.

Titus nodded "Yeah... which is why I wanted to talk to you," he said, grabbing her by the hand gently and taking her to sit on the couch. He sighed "My parents – with my help – managed to get the money for four tickets to Australia, but they haven't got them yet, they're just waiting for me to give them the green light."

"And..?"

"And... I was wondering if er... maybe you'd want to come live out there with me?"

Rydel's face dropped into shock "Live?" Rydel asked, Titus nodded "in Australia? Forever?"

Titus moved around thoughtfully "Well... Not forever. But, it'd take you a good few years for you to save up money to come back for a visit. Especially if you want a return ticket. Even if you wanted to come back from Australia for good."

Rydel breathed deeply, not sure how to take this offer "W-with Tyler and Matty?" Rydel asked, Titus nodded. She blinked a few times, wiping her face with her hands as this really got her thinking "Wow... That's... wow. I mean, I'd be leaving everything behind. I'd be leaving my family, my brothers... I'd be leaving Connor behind too. Oh my, God. Connor! Tyler might never see him again..."

"Yeah he can," Titus said "but, that means saving up even more money for a return ticket to England from Australia. Or to Australia from England. I mean, I'm sure if Connor cares enough he can make his own way to Australia to see his son."

Rydel started thinking long and hard "I know... It's not the point... it's just... he can barely get over here as it is. Especially ever since The Vamps ended. I mean, I've had to help him a few times when he's wanted to see the boys," she let out a nervous scoff "imagine—imagine what it'd be like if we moved to... Australia..." She said, feeling her heart beat faster.

"It's okay if you don't want to come, Rydel. It would just mean us breaking up and probably never seeing each other again. Cos if you come, that literally will be the case. You might never see Connor again," he said, pausing "or your brothers and parents." he added.

Rydel exhaled "Wow... Never again, huh?" Rydel asked, she ran her hand through her hair "I don't... I don't know..."

"It's okay, Rydel. You don't have to come. We'll break up now and that'll be it, if you want."

Rydel shook her head "Oh, no, no, no! No! Not at all, Titus! No. Er... I'd love to move to Australia with you!" She smiled, but looked slightly unsure "I mean, who doesn't love Australia? It's so... pretty. And big. Really big. It's somewhere, where I've always wanted to... live in my... lifetime. So, why not? I don't see the problem with it!" Rydel said, trying to convince herself that this was right "I mean... my family will be supportive and the boys will love it! And never seeing Connor again – as well as possibly family – I can..." Rydel clapped her hands together "I can live with that."

Titus raised his brow "Are you sure?"

Rydel nodded "I'm sure. Yes! I'll move to Australia with you Titus!"

Titus smiled "That's great!" He kissed Rydel and hugged her. He pulled away after a short while "I'll go let my parents know now. We leave in like... a few weeks. See ya later."

"See ya!" Rydel waved as he left.

She collapsed onto the couch. What the hell did she just agree too? "Never seeing him again huh..." Rydel said out loud to herself, trying to convince herself and make up her mind properly "I can... I can..." She paused, trying to get it through her head that going to Australia was the right thing.

"I can't live with that."

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><p><strong>:D :D :D :D :D :D I'll let you interpret that last sentence by yourself as to what that meant :)<strong>

_**PLEASE REVIEW & ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW!**_

**Thoughts on Ross in this chapter?**

**Thoughts on Rad?**

**Thoughts on Brad in this chapter?**

**Thoughts on Ross's suspicion & the way he acted with Titus?**

**Thoughts on Tydel moving to Australia?**

**Thoughts on Rydel after Titus told her about Australia?**

**Thoughts on the next chapter?**


	15. Cut offs

**Hey, hey! I'm back with another chapter! I decided my updating schedule isn't working, so I'm gonna focus on one story (this one for now) on week-days so it'll be finished sooner & my other stories on week-ends & once that stories finished or I've ran out of ideas, I'll focus on another story :D **

**I just really want to get the stories I have out now finished so I can get writing the stories I have planned for this year :)**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 or The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI records!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 15<br>**_Cut offs_**  
><strong>

Brad woke up to find Ross gone, which was a surprise given he had his arm draped over something but when he opened his eyes he saw Jesse had taken Ross' place on the bed. Of course. He sat up in the bed, looking around the room for any sign that Ross was still home, but he had taken his jacket.

Brad sighed, sitting back and pulling the covers up to his neck as he started to feel nervous with Ross gone and leaving him alone in the apartment. He knows it sounds stupid, but ever since yesterday with Titus, every time Ross leaves him alone he doesn't feel safe and secure any more. Even if he's only gone to the next room. Sure, he has a dog with him, but what's she going to do? She wouldn't hurt anybody unless she felt threatened herself, not anybody surrounding her. She's _that_ type of dog.

He laid there for at least ten minutes before hearing a knock on the front door. Like before, Jesse's head rose up, her ears pinned up and she started growling. "Oh no..." Brad groaned, remembering what that meant the last time.

"Jesse, shh..." Brad said quietly, trying to calm her down so that he didn't have to get up and answer the door. She began growling even louder so Brad grabbed her by the collar gently and started stroking her "Be quiet. It's fine... Shh..." He stroked her until she let out a sulk noise and rested her head between her paws, looking out of the bedroom door and into living room where the front door was.

He sighed in relief "Good girl."

It was quiet for a few more moments before the knocking got louder and more angrier and before Brad could even grab Jesse to stop her, she jumped from the bed and ran into the living room barking the place down. Brad got up off the bed and shut the bedroom door and quickly scrambled for his phone that was on his bedside table.

He opened it up and dialled a number, waiting for someone to answer on the other side of the phone "Hello? Ross?" Brad asked.

"Hey," Ross said, picking up the phone as he walked down the street "glad you're awake. Did I scare you not being there when you woke up?" he asked.

"Er... a little. Listen, can you home? Please?"

"I'm on my way home now. In fact, I'm literally at the apartment blocks now, walking into the car park." He said, seeing the apartment building in the distance.

"Can you hurry up? Please."

Ross furrowed his brow "Why..? What's wrong? Is everything alright?" He asked, stopping in the middle of the path "is that Jesse barking in the background?"

"Ross, please. Just come home. Stop asking questions and come home!" Brad said quickly before hanging up. Not being quite sure as to why he hung up, because now he felt even more nervous. At least having Ross on the phone made him feel a little bit safer.

Ross sighed heavily, seeing he had hung up and the next thing he knew he was taking off like a rocket to get into the apartment building.

Brad opened up the door to the bedroom "Jesse. Come here." Brad said, more sternly. Luckily, or unluckily, Jesse stopped barking and came over to him in the bedroom. Brad directed her into the bedroom and once she was in, he stepped out and locked her in there. He took a deep breath and walked closer to the door "W-who's there?" Brad asked, calling.

"You know who's there. Who's the only person your dog barks at?"

Titus.

Brad was kind of hoping it was a stranger that gave off a bad vibe but turned out to be a really good person. But in this case it was a person who gave off a good vibe but is really a bad person. "Why are you here?" Brad asked, now being at the door but not opening it.

"Let me in and I'll tell you why."

Brad sighed, deciding to open the door. Mainly because Ross was only outside, probably inside, the building so if he came up and saw Titus trying anything, that way he got caught on his own without Brad having to tell Ross about what he did.

Brad took a step back from the door when it opened. Titus basically barged in and slammed the door behind him "Why is Ross acting funny with me?" Titus asked.

"As in 'haha' funny or..?"

Titus rolled his eyes "Don't get sassy. He was at Rydel's about twenty minutes ago, and as soon as I walked through the door he started questioning me on if you were okay when you were at mine yesterday. You fucking told him didn't you?!" Titus asked, raising his voice and shoving Brad backwards a little.

Brad shook his head "No! I never. I—I swear!" He said, nervously as Titus started closing in on him, so he started moving backwards "I came—I came home upset f-from it a-and... he noticed and he k-kept questioning me, s-so I told him half of it. I didn't say it was you, though."

"Well, he has his suspicions about me now. Thank you very much! Couldn't you have just said it was pregnancy hormones or something? It wouldn't have been that hard!"

"He's had a sister that's been pregnant with twins and he's seen me be hormonal over this pregnancy and the last one before you kindly terminated it, so I think he has a fair idea of what hormones affecting pregnant people look like."

As if Brad didn't learn from the last time he tried to be sassy and sarcastic with Titus, that only received him another harsh slap around the face. "Y-you know if you keep doing that every time I do something or s-say something wrong, it'll probably end up turning into a bruise and he will start asking further questions and will probably drag it out of me."

Titus glared at him, not really caring and raising his hand to hit him again.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

Titus patted Brad's shoulder, hearing Ross' angry voice behind him, with the hand he had raised "So, yeah, I was just making sure you were alright. Clearly you are," he turned around, seeing Ross walk towards him "hey, Ross."

Brad breathed in relief and slightly shaky too. Ross noticed and he walked round to him, making him look up at him where he saw a red mark on his face. Ross turned to face Titus again, this time pulling Brad close to him and keeping his arm around him "Why are you here? And why the hell did it look like you were about to hit him?" Ross asked.

"Ross, calm down. H-he wasn't..." Brad said, putting his arm around his waist and getting closer to him for protection and comfort. His nervousness was clear to both Ross and Titus, but he was trying his best to hide it.

Titus nodded, even though Ross was sending him the biggest death glare of his life "He's telling the truth. I just swung by to come make sure if he was okay after what you told me at Rydel's. He didn't say much. Other than he was scared and all he wanted was for you to be there so he felt safer and protected."

Ross smiled sarcastically at him "Yeah, well, I'm here now, and I think you better be leaving." he grabbed him by the back of his shirt.

"Yeah, I better. I need to fill my parents in on Australia."

Ross let go of him "What?" he asked, confused.

"I'm moving to Australia," He said, making Brad feel relieved "with Rydel and the boys."

"What. Since when?" Ross asked.

"Since about fifteen minutes ago. But, like you said, I better be going now. Bye, Ross. Bye Brad." he said before disappearing out of the door way.

Ross slammed the door shut and turned around to Brad, walking over to him quickly "Was it him?" Ross asked.

Brad shook his head violently "No! No! Of course it wasn't!" He lied "Ross, you're just letting your feelings about him get in the way. He was genuinely checking if I was okay."

Ross raised his brow, not believing him for a second "Really?" He asked.

Brad nodded "Yes! Really! I swear!" he said, wrapping his arms around Ross' waist "if it was him, do you honestly think I would have answered the door?" he asked.

"Then why did you ask me to come home? You sounded petrified."

Brad shrugged, trying to find an excuse "Hormones? C'mon. You know what hormones are like when someone's pregnant. They just... act funny."

Ross half rolled his eyes "You're telling me," he mumbled "alright, fine. I believe you." Ross said, kissing his lips. But the truth was, Ross didn't believe Brad at all.

He knows for a fact it was Titus that did it, the way Brad acted just then and the red mark that is now on his face that wasn't there this morning when he woke up gave it away. Also, the fact that if some stranger did have Brad at gun point Matty would have had to of been with him, because if he was fine at Titus' that meant it happened on the way home. And Matty would have definitely said something to Rydel if that was the case.

Ross wasn't going to do anything to Titus.

At least not yet.

He was just waiting for the right moment and until Brad finally grows the balls to tell him that it was Titus.

And by the time Ross is done with him, he'll be a dead Titus Makin.

And that's a promise.

_**Birmingham, England**_

After spending the entire day together, as well as yesterday, Connor and Tristan finally decided it was about time for them to go home. Well, it was time for them to go to Connor's house because Tristan doesn't live in Birmingham, he lives a little further away. He just decided to come down because the last time they were together was when James died and it was his funeral.

They decided to maybe do something a little more fun than that. Of course, they did go visit his grave for a while. They hadn't forgotten about him.

Especially when they run into old fans that recognise them and they ask how Brad and James are because they don't know James is dead. Though, it's to be expected given that they're not famous any more and it won't spread like wild fire. Only slowly. Clearly, it was still spreading slowly because they had bumped into old fans that knew about his death.

Explaining that James is dead to them fans wasn't very fun. They had to do it carefully.

Right now, both boys were sat at the train station. Connor sighed, staring at the middle of the track "Have you spoken to Sally since James died?" Connor asked.

Tristan shrugged "A few times. Not a lot. She hasn't been very talkative. I can see why though. Plus, she doesn't seem like herself lately."

"What do you expect? Her boyfriend just died only a matter of weeks ago. I'd be sad too. Well, to be fair I wouldn't have a boyfriend, maybe if it was my girlfriend, yeah."

Tristan turned to Connor, raising his brow "Do you even have a girlfriend?" He asked.

Connor shook his head "Nope. Don't think I will for a while."

"Is that until—never mind." Tristan shook his head, deciding not to go there. He'd had that conversation with Brad a few days ago over the phone and they both came to the same conclusion. The conclusion Connor is so oblivious about that it's actually funny and sweet. But also sad too, because by the time Connor realises himself it could be too late. He sighed "You know, Connor. When you're in love with someone, it's always best to tell them sooner rather than later because you might not get another chance or day to say it..."

Connor stared at Tristan, blinking a few times "Okay..." he said, not being sure where that had come from. Then his phone started ringing.

_Rydel Lynch_

"Hey, Rydel." Connor said, answering the phone.

"Hey," Rydel said, feeling slightly nervous "are you alright?"

Connor nodded "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm sat at the train station with Tris waiting to go home. How are you?" he asked, making Tristan roll his eyes and turn his attention away from that phone call, deciding to look around the platform from where he sat.

Rydel scratched the back of her head nervously "I-I'm fine..." She stuttered, clearly not sounding okay.

"No you're not. What's wrong?" He asked.

Rydel shook her head "I-it's nothing. Look, I need... I need you to do something for me."

"What's that?" he asked.

"Be happy. For me."

Connor felt suspicious "Why..? Is everything okay?" Connor asked.

Rydel smiled, even though she had tears rolling down her cheeks. She knew for a fact that Connor wasn't going to be able to afford coming back over to the USA before she goes to Australia to live with Titus in a few weeks time. She breathed deeply "Everything's... Everything's fine. It's just... yeah. I-I'm gonna be busy these next few weeks... Really, really busy so... I don't know if I'll be able to call you. At all."

"That's fine. Just let me know when you are free to call."

Rydel sighed _but I'll never be able to call you again _she said in her head, knowing that once she goes to Australia that will be it for phone calls to England. It's too far away and expensive for the both of them. "Yeah, I might not be able to call you again after either," Rydel said, making Connor's face drop "just... don't worry about me okay. Just get on with your life dude. Forget about me. Forget about Matty and... forget about Tyl—"

"Don't you dare, Rydel. What's going on?" Connor asked.

"N-nothing! Just... Please. Do what I ask. It's important to me. And Tyler too."

"What that I forget about you both?!" Connor asked, making Tristan turn his attention to the phone call again "cos that's not gonna happen. Now tell me what's going on."

Rydel shook her head. She didn't want to tell him about Australia because she knows he won't be happy at all about it. "Connor... Please calm down... It'll be all clear the next time you come to America, okay?" Rydel asked, Connor sighed "so... if you need to say something to me right now, you better say it. Cos... you might never get to say it again."

"I don't... I don't have—Rydel, what's going on?" Connor asked, the phone line went silent "Rydel! Tell me now or I will hang up!"

"I... I want to, but... it's not a good idea. And I'm sorry."

Silence. Connor sighed, taking his phone away from his hear and about to press the hang up button. Rydel knew what he was doing and panicked "Connor, I l—"

Connor pressed the hang up button, cutting off Rydel. He sighed, jumping up from the seat "Change of plan, we're not going home."

"Where are we going?" Tristan asked, confused.

"America."

Tristan's eyes widened "America?! Dude! We're in Birmingham! Miles away from an airport! And do we even have enough money to go?" Tristan asked.

Connor shrugged "We'll find out. And if we don't, I'm sure we won't be far off a one-way ticket and whilst we're in America we can make some money for another one-way ticket back home." he said, about to walk off.

Tristan grabbed Connor by the arm and pulled him back "What's going on?" He asked.

Connor sighed "Look, Rydel was a little bit emotional on the phone. She sounded like... we were never gonna see or speak to each other again. In fact, she did say that! And I'm worried! She asked to forget about her and Tyler as well as Matty. I mean, that's not right."

Tristan became suspicious "Why would she do that..?" Tristan asked.

"I don't know... That's why we need to get back to America as fast as we can and find out what the hell is going on there. Cos I have the strangest feeling it has something to do with Titus."

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><p><strong>Hehehehehehe. The story is getting even more exciting now. yayayay. &amp; it's so cute as well bc you're all so oblivious about what's to come. Awe. <strong>

_**PLEASE REVIEW & ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW IF YOU WANT THE NEXT ONE.**_

**Thoughts on Brad not feeling safe when Ross isn't around bc of Titus? Do you think it's fair he should feel that way?**

**Thoughts on Brad lying to Ross? Do you think he'll eventually tell him or do you think it'll be too late when he does?**

**Thoughts on Ross in this chapter?**

**Thoughts on Connor & Tristan's relationship?**

**Thoughts on Connor & Rydel's phone call?**


	16. Talks & Tantrums

**Disclaimer: I do not own R5 or The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood & Mercury/Virgin EMI records!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 16<br>**_Talks & Tantrums_**  
><strong>

Rydel sighed heavily in frustration, knocking hard on the bathroom door in her apartment "Tyler! Come out here now!" She shouted. All she got from that was Tyler shouting "no" loudly and aggressively at her.

It had been a few days ever since she had spoken to Connor on the phone and that was the last she had heard from him. After that Rydel started packing her things as well as the boys' things to go to Australia, and Tyler was making her life ten times more harder about the situation by being a rebellious child. She told Tyler and Matty that they were going to live in Australia with Titus, Matty loved the idea, but Tyler... not so much.

As you can probably tell.

She tried going into the bathroom, but every time she went in he would throw something at her. And even though he's only 3 years old, it really, really hurt. Rydel hit the door one last time with her fist and as she did the door of her apartment opened up, she turned her head to see Ross and Brad coming in. "What are you doing that for?" Ross asked.

Rydel sighed "Tyler won't come out of the bathroom. He's having tantrum and has been ever since I told him about Australia. I'm starting to sense that he doesn't like it."

Ross rolled his eyes "He's a kid. You're taking him away from everyone he's growing up with, of course he's not going to like it. Here, let me try to get him out." Ross said, going over to the door.

Rydel stopped him "No, Ross. Every time I open the door to go in there he keeps throwing stuff, and it hurts."

"Rydel, I'm his uncle. He's going to like me more than you, so I highly doubt he'll throw something at me." Ross said, reassuringly.

He opened up the bathroom door and went inside "Hey, Tyler, what's wr—OW!"

Ross came out of the bathroom merely a second later, holding his face where Tyler had threw a toy at him. Rydel folded her arms "What did I say?" Rydel asked.

"Why is he being like that for?!" Ross asked, walking over to the couch "damn that kid is violent!"

"Ross, he's three years old. He can't be that violent," Brad said "here let me try." he said, going over to the door.

Rydel scoffed, sitting down on the couch as well "Good luck. I hope you have fast reflex skills."

Brad rolled his eyes. He slowly opened up the door to the bathroom and shut it. When Brad turned around, he saw Tyler threw something his way, but luckily he did have fast reflex skills and he caught it before it could hit him anywhere on his body. "Nice try." Brad said, tossing it up and down in the air.

He put the toy that Tyler had been non-stop throwing at everyone who walked through the door on the back of counter that was in there, which was hopefully too far back for him to reach. Tyler was sat up against the bath with his knees brought up to his chest. "Alright, why are you being a little pain for?" Brad asked, standing in front of him.

Tyler didn't respond, instead he looked down. Brad sighed and got down on the floor, sitting next to him "C'mon. You can tell me. I won't your Mum. It can just stay between us," Brad said, and still Tyler shook his head "do you miss your Dad?" he asked.

Tyler nodded. That was understandable, Connor is away for a long time before he comes back to the USA to see him, and Tyler does end up missing Connor a lot when he's gone. But never has he acted like this before, sure he's cried a few times, but he's never had a tantrum and locked himself in a room before. Something was telling Brad there was something more to it.

"Do you not want to move to Australia with your Mum and Titus?" Brad asked, Tyler shook his head. Brad sighed again and put his arm around him, hugging him "I figured it was that. Why not?"

"I don't like Titus..."

Brad sighed "You and me both, man... You and me both," he said, muttering "why don't you like him?" he asked.

Tyler shrugged. Of course Tyler couldn't exactly give a valid reason as to why he didn't like Titus, he probably didn't understand himself. After all, kids are the best judges of characters next to dogs. And so far, Jesse obviously doesn't like Titus – who is a dog – and neither does Tyler, who is a child. Which concluded to one thing.

Titus is not a nice person and hasn't changed what so ever.

"I know it's not what you want to hear, but... Unfortunately, you're gonna have to put up with him being around because, I don't think your Mum's gonna leave him any time soon. Especially if you're all going to Australia to live," Brad said, probably making Tyler more upset but he didn't mean too "but, but, but! Maybe if and when your Dad comes back and finds out, he won't like the idea of it and might try and put up a fight for you to stay so that you don't have to go?" he questioned, making Tyler look up at him hopefully "he might! I'm not sure."

Tyler sighed. "I know ever since your Mum and him have been getting ready to go, he's been staying around a lot and has barely left, so... why don't I ask your Mum if you can come stay with me and uncle Ross for a while? Would you like that? Just up until your Dad comes back or maybe for a few days?" Brad asked, Tyler's face lit up and he smiled, nodded.

Brad got up from the floor, slowly "Come on then." he said, holding out his hands for Tyler to get up.

Ross and Rydel both sat in the living room, waiting for Brad to come out with a black eye or bust lip from having things thrown at him, and to their surprise he hadn't. He hadn't even come out at all yet, which was beginning to make them think that maybe Brad had killed the child or vice versa.

The door opened to the bathroom where Tyler and Brad came out after it. "Oh my, God, what did you do?" Rydel asked, surprised "did you... use some sort of black magic?"

Brad nodded "Yeah, it's called being nice and not shouting. You should try it some time," he said, Rydel rolled her eyes "is it alright if he stays with me and Ross for a little while?" he asked.

Rydel furrowed her brow "Why..?" she asked.

"Because he wants too..." Brad said, slightly lying.

"Err... Sure, yeah... I'll just go... pack him a bag." She said, slightly unsure and suspicious as to why Tyler wants to stay with them. Seconds later, she disappeared into Tyler and Matty's bedroom with Tyler following her.

Ross stared at Brad suspiciously as he came over and sat down next to him on the couch. Brad turned his head and jumped when he noticed "What?!" he asked.

Ross shook his head "Nothing. You're just unbelievable sometimes." he said, making Brad shrug.

Minutes later, Rydel came out with a bag that had some of Tyler's things in it as well as Tyler next to her "Here," Rydel said, placing it on the table "everything's in there that he needs."

Ross and Brad stood up. "You be a good boy for them, okay?" Rydel asked, looking down at her satanic son, Tyler nodded "I'll see you soon, alright?" she said, giving him a quick hug.

Ross picked up Tyler's bag from the table and Tyler ran over to Brad. "See you later, Rydel." Ross said as they went to leave.

Rydel waved "Bye."

"CONNOR SLOW DOWN!"

Connor stopped running hearing Tristan shout him as they came out of the hotel doors. They were finally back in LA and had been for the past two hours, they had only just put their things in their hotel room which meant Connor could now go see what was wrong with Rydel and why she was acting the way she did over the phone.

Connor turned round to Tristan "Why? You don't have to come with me! You can stay here!"

"I didn't have to come to America with you, but I did!" Tristan said, he sighed walking closer to him "will you just calm down... I'm sure if anything was wrong, Brad or someone would have called by now. Don't you think?" Tristan asked.

"Maybe they have, but I can't answer my phone when I'm flying over the Atlantic Ocean, can I?"

Tristan rolled his eyes. "Look, you don't have to come with me to see Rydel, just go back in the hotel or go see Brad or something." Connor said.

Tristan shrugged "I might go see Brad."

Connor stuck his thumbs up "Brilliant." he said before quickly running off.

Tristan shook his head in disbelief, watching as Connor ran off to find the nearest taxi to take him to Rydel's.

"I can't believe you're moving to Australia with him." Rocky said, who was sat down on Rydel's couch.

Rydel shrugged. Rocky had been here for the past hour, because he had nothing else better to do, and all he was doing was talking to her about Titus and Australia. It was almost like Rocky was trying to talk her out of it. "It's getting late, Rocky, shouldn't you be going home?" Rydel asked, sitting down opposite him on another chair.

Rocky shook his head "No. I can defend myself if someone tries to mug me or kill me. It's all good," Rocky said, he leaned against the arm of the couch "I mean, are you sure you want to go to Australia with him? Because, as you told me, you might never see any of us again. Maybe just... once every five years."

Rydel nodded "I know. And it's fine. I can live with that."

Rocky raised his brow "Can you, Rydel? Can you really?" Rocky asked, Rydel nodded with a confident and assured look on her face. Rocky sighed, sitting back on the couch.

"What's wrong?" Rydel asked.

Rocky shook his head "Nothing. It doesn't matter... it's just... I don't understand. Why would you want to move to another country with someone you've been with for nearly five months? I mean, Brad never moved over here until he and Ross were married. Take a page of their book."

"Yeah, I'd rather not, we all know how _that_ went."

"Alright, fair enough," Rocky said. He paused "After everything he did to you though. How do you know he won't do it again?" he asked.

"Rocky! I told you all weeks ago! He's changed. He's not how he used to be! He's a completely different person!" Rydel said, raising her voice "what happened to you giving him a second chance?!"

"Just because I gave him a second chance doesn't mean I like him or better yet trust him. Trust me Rydel, he will mess up his second chance, and you won't like the outcome. Whether if it's a month from now or a year from now. It's coming and you know it."

Rydel sighed, supporting her head with her hand "Why are you all so against me and Titus being together? Apart from what he did all those years ago?" Rydel asked.

Rocky shrugged "I don't know... It's just... All these years with Titus gone... I really thought you were going to find someone else..."

"Like who?"

"I don't know... Someone better than him."

"Well, I'm with Titus now! And if you don't like it, leave. Same goes for Riker and Ross. If they don't like it, they can leave too."

Rocky rolled his eyes "Wait to go, Rydel, just push your family away from you, all because of a stupid boy."

"I'll do what I want, Rocky, it's not your life, it's mine. You don't get a say on what I do. You can give advice, but I won't listen to it."

"Fine then, be like that!" Rocky said, standing up "but don't come running to us when you find yourself half dead in the middle of the street because of him!" he yelled, going over to the front door. He turned back to Rydel "Have a nice time in Australia."

Rydel looked over at him pathetically "What? You're not gonna come say goodbye to me when I do go in like, three weeks time?"

"If you're gonna be like this, then no! This is it, Rydel. This is our goodbye. I hope you're fucking happy with yourself." He said, making the whole room fall silent and grow a tense atmosphere. Rocky sighed "You know... all these years, Rydel... I honestly thought it would be you and Connor that got together in the end. Not you and Titus."

That was the last thing Rocky said before he left the apartment. Making Rydel sigh and slouch down in her chair. It was like everyone in the whole world was turning against her all because she wanted to be with Titus. Heck, even her own three year old son was. Maybe that's why Tyler wanted to go stay with Ross and Brad. Matty's only in his bedroom, and he won't turn against her because Titus is his father. Even then she's not too sure Matty likes him.

Rydel stayed sat where she was before hearing a loud knock on the door. She sighed and got up, going over to the door and opening it. Her eyes widened "Connor!" Rydel said, relieved and happy.

"Rydel! Oh my, God! You're alright!" he said, going into the apartment and hugging her, kicking the door shut behind him. He pulled away from the hug "Why the hell did you sound like you were about to die over the phone if you're alright?" Connor asked, confused.

Rydel shrugged "It's complicated. What are you doing here?!" Rydel asked "I thought you couldn't afford to come back for a while!"

"I thought you were in danger! I only had enough money for a one-way ticket, so it looks like I'm gonna be stuck over here for a while," Connor sighed "where are the boys?" he asked.

"Tyler's staying at Ross and Brad's for a while and Matty's in his bedroom."

"Oh, why's Tyler at Ross and Brad's?"

"It's a long story, never mind."

"Oh, okay," Connor said. He looked around the apartment, seeing that there was no sign of Titus being here. He faced Rydel again "So, er... what is it that you're going to be busy with these next few weeks?" Connor asked.

Rydel froze, forgetting she had told Connor that excuse. She froze for way to long which made Connor know immediately that something was up. She smiled "Nothing important. I'm just... packing to go away for a while. With the boys..." She said.

"As in a holiday?" Connor asked, Rydel nodded "oh, cool! Where to?"

"Australia..."

"Are you going with Titus?" Connor asked, Rydel nodded again "of course you are... How long are you going for?"

That was when Rydel fell completely silent, not knowing what answer to give him which made Connor even more suspicious. She tried to speak but all that came out was a squeak, and it looked like she wanted to cry. "Rydel..." Connor said, suspicious and a little bit nervous as to what the answer was going to be "how long..?"

Rydel still never said anything, by this point she had tears glistening in her eyes. "A week?" Connor asked, Rydel shook her head "2 weeks?" she shook her head "a month..?" she shook her head "a-a few months?" she shook her head "a... a year..?" Connor asked, Rydel shook her head "more than a year?"

"I'm sorry." She said.

Connor's eyes widened "You're coming back though, right? Once that year is up you are definitely coming back?" Connor asked.

Rydel shook her head "I'm... I'm moving there with Titus and the boys."

At that moment Connor felt his heart sink all the way down to his stomach. He shook his head "No, no! No! Why?" Connor asked "why Australia? Of all the countries, why there?! It's like the most expensive country to move to and travel too! Was this his idea or yours?!" Connor asked.

"His."

"Of course it was!" Connor sighed heavily "do you even want to move there with him?"

"Yeah, of course I do!"

"No you don't," Connor said, making Rydel confused "I can tell by the look on your face you don't. If you wanted to, you would have had no problem in telling me."

"But I do!"

"Alright, then, if you do want to move there with him. How am I supposed to see Tyler?" Connor asked.

"Come visit."

"Come visi—Rydel! I can only just get enough money to come here to see the boys for a few weeks and months! How the hell am I supposed to find the money to get to Australia from England?!" Connor asked, beginning to get annoyed and angry "this isn't fair on anyone! Do the boys even want to move there?"

"Yes! Of course they do!"

"Oh, so, if I go ask Matty right now, he'll be one hundred per cent okay with going and not seeing me again? Because that's the way it's looking! And what about if I go see Tyler at Ross and Brad's, huh? Is he going to be one hundred per cent satisfied about moving to another country with some fucking ass hole and his mother, and not being able to see his Dad again?!" Connor asked, now shouting which scared Rydel because she's never seen him this angry before "cos I can bet you that's the reason he went to go stay with Brad and Ross! Because he doesn't want to go and I won't stand for it, Rydel! I really won't!"

Rydel started shaking a little bit "Connor, calm down."

"No! I won't fucking calm down! Unless you're going to bring the boys to me in England or pay for me to get to Australia to see the boys, I won't let you go!"

"You can't stop me from going and taking the boys! No matter what you say or do. I'm going whether if you like it or not! And if you won't make any effort to come over and see the boys, then so be it! Be a deadbeat like Titus was!" Rydel shouted back, not thinking about what she was saying.

"What did you just say to me?" Connor asked, Rydel's eyes widened when she realised what she just said "did you really just compare me to... him..."

"N-I didn't mean it like that!"

Connor shook his head "You're unbelievable, Rydel," he said, letting silence fall over "how about this. I won't make the effort to come see the boys if you won't make the effort to help me out in seeing them or by bringing them to me if you move to Australia. That way, it's both our fault on why I can't see the boys—"

Rydel's eyes started filling up with tears as she started to see where this was going "Connor—"

"—But that also means us not seeing each other again. And you know what, Rydel. I think I can live with that. I would be so happy right now on never seeing you again. I mean, you would have thought I would have loved to see you after everything we've been through together. But, no. Clearly all of what we have been through is not near enough as important as Titus, is it? So go ahead, Rydel. Go move to Australia with Titus. See how much I care. I won't stop you. I won't come running after you when you leave because you changed your mind but you don't want to tell Titus because you're too scared. For now on, you're on your own." Connor said before heading towards the door.

Rydel grabbed Connor by the arm, now crying "No, Connor, please! I don't want it to end like this!"

Connor pulled his arm away from her "Well, you should have thought about that before you got back together with Titus! Maybe then everyone wouldn't be turning their backs on you! I mean, I wasn't going to turn my back on you because of it, but now I am! And it's your own fault. Have a nice life Rydel, I won't be around to say goodbye to you when you go. I don't even think I'll be here at all. Enjoy Australia and live happily ever after with _our_ child and _him_."

"But Connor wait!" Rydel shouted, but Connor had left and slammed the door behind him that hard the apartment rattled.

She put her head in her hands and sunk to the floor crying.

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><p><strong>And in the next few chapters, clearly everything is going to be all sunshines &amp; rainbows.<strong>

_**PLEASE REVIEW & ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW IF YOU WANT THE NEXT ONE.**_

**Thoughts on Tyler?**

**Thoughts on Brad & Tyler?**

**Thoughts on the texts Ross was receiving?**

**Thoughts on Rocky & Rydel's talk?**

**Thoughts on Rydel?**

**Thoughts on Connor?**

**Thoughts on Connor & Rydel?**


	17. Chapter 17

**Sorry for the wait on the update. I honestly have no excuses any more apart from the fact that school is tiring me out.**

**Also, I know there was a question at the end of the last chapter asking about the text messages Ross was receiving, I was gonna do something but I decided against doing it that way, so I'm gonna do it in a later chapter, but not through texts. I just forgot to delete the question after I deleted the text scene lololol**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 or The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI Records!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 17<strong>

**1 week & a half later**

Ross sighed heavily, coming out of the kitchen with a damp cloth in his hand and sitting down on the couch next to Brad who had a bust lip and a slightly bruised eye from Titus, again – even though Brad thinks Ross doesn't know that, he does. Brad hissed in pain when Ross touched him with the cloth. Ross rolled his eyes "Well, you know how you can avoid being in pain? Tell me who the fuck it is doing this to you or try to defend yourself a little bit more."

Brad sighed and sat still, letting Ross get on with cleaning up his face.

The reason why this happened was because Ross was acting funny with Titus. He had gone round to Rydel's to help her with packing, and it just so happened Titus was there helping too. This gave Ross the chance to "accidentally" drop boxes on his foot, in which he responded with a "sorry" having a smirk plastered right across his face. Obviously, Titus didn't like that – so he went and found Brad. He harassed him to try and get it out of him that he had told Ross about what Titus had done in the past and a few weeks ago, and Brad told him he never. That resulted in the way Brad looks now.

Needless to say, when Ross next see's him, Titus will be getting an extra heavy box dropped on him. Preferably on his head. And ironically, he has to be back at Rydel's soon to help her pack again.

Ross glanced down at Brad's stomach "Is the baby okay? He didn't hurt it did he?" Ross asked.

"No."

"Good." Ross threw the cloth onto the table when he was done, deciding not to put it back where it originally belonged for the time being. He sat back on the couch, pulling Brad into his arms as he done so "When are you finally going to tell me who it is?" Ross asked.

"When he goes away. Cos that way he won't hurt or do anything to you, me or the baby for telling you."

"And if I figure it out by myself?"

Brad fell silent, not saying anything. Instead, he rested his head on Ross' chest and held onto him tighter.

"I'll say this now, just so you know what'll happen when I do eventually find out, I don't care where they are in the world. Whether if it's England, China, Russia, Spain, _Australia_... I will hunt them down and I will hurt them severely."

Brad sighed "It'll be a long journey."

"It'll be worth it."

Brad sat up on the couch, rubbing his eyes "I'm gonna go sleep for a little while. I'm tired." Brad went to go get up, but as soon as he attempted to he felt a sharp pain go through his stomach and he ended up back on the couch. "Ow."

Ross sat up, immediately getting closer to him "What's wrong? Why are you saying 'ow'?" Ross asked, noticing Brad now had his hand on his stomach.

Brad shook his head, once the pain had soothed and gone away "Nothing... Nothing. I-it's fine. Just a little bit of cramp, that's all."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Brad slowly got up again. The pain was still there, but it was only subtle. He made his way to the bedroom.

Ross sighed, sitting back on the couch and waiting until Brad had gone into the bedroom. He knows it's Titus that is doing this to Brad and causing him such pain, but he doesn't want to take action and hurt Titus until Brad confirms it to Ross. Meaning that he's basically given Ross his permission to do what the hell he likes to Titus. Ross knows he doesn't need Brad's permission anyway, it's just if Brad is truly that scared of Ross doing anything to Titus before he tells Ross then he's going to respect that.

And when Brad finally tells Ross, he will have no problem in hurting Titus what so ever for what he did.

Heck, he might even go as far as death.

You know, seen as though Titus has already killed one of Ross and Brad's child and almost killed Brad in the process of doing it. It seems only fair. And if anything happens the baby they have, or are going to get, now... Ross might just kill Titus, bring him back and kill him again just for the pleasure.

And that's a promise Ross is sticking to.

Tristan opened up the door to Connor's hotel room, seeing him laid in bed doing absolutely nothing. Tristan sighed, finding it ridiculous at how Connor was treating this situation "Aren't you going to go see Tyler?" Tristan asked.

"Nope."

"Oh, c'mon Connor, you're being ridiculous about this whole thing. He's your son. It's not his fault."

"Seeing him means seeing _her_."

"Not even if I go get him?" Tristan asked.

Connor looked at Tristan who was stood in the doorway of the room "You don't even know where she lives."

"No, but I could if you told me."

Connor shook his head "No, Tris, leave it. I made my point pretty loud and clear and I'm sticking to it. Sure, would I like her to stay in America instead of going to Australia with that ass hole? Yeah. But she's made her choice... so..." Connor shrugged, not really knowing what to think any more.

Tristan shook his head in disbelief; he also felt sympathy for Connor because he knows why he's acting the way he is, even if he doesn't realise it himself. And he's letting it get in the way.

"Do you think there is a way I could stop her from going to Australia with Tyler and Matty, though?" Connor asked, looking thoughtful.

"So many, Connor, so many. But, unfortunately they won't work. Though, I do know one way that could stop her, but you would never do it," Tristan said. He sighed and shook his head "So... sorry. No there isn't. Why?"

"Just wondering."

A small silence fell over the two boys and Tristan took this as his opportunity to leave.

"Do you remember 5 Seconds of Summer?"

Tristan stopped walking "Oh, god, this should be good," he mumbled. He turned around and faced him again "Yeah, of course I do. Why..?"

"Just wondering... Do you think we're still friends with them?"

"I should hope so. Why?"

Connor shrugged "Because... they live in Australia... Sydney... They're famous enough. They could probably... you know... pay Sydney airport to cancel all flights going in and out of Australia to America for about... a year. Or two."

Tristan blinked a few times and began to walk out of the room "I don't know why I bother any more..." He mumbled to himself, seeing Connor had reached new levels of desperate.

Brad laid in bed asleep peacefully, even though he hadn't been there for long. That was until he was woken up by the same sharp pain through his stomach from earlier, but this time it was ten times as worse and wouldn't go away no matter how much he tried to sooth it.

He climbed out of bed as best as he could without it hurting more, and could only just keep himself on his feet. He stumbled into the living room, calling for Ross and expecting him to be there, but he wasn't. He's never there when Brad needs him in times like these.

He sighed heavily in frustration and grabbed the phone to call him.

Ross sat in his car, making his way to Rydel's to help her finish packing for Australia. He was stuck at the red lights but couldn't do anything because they're broken and it was causing traffic. He sat there bored out of his mind. All he was doing was going to Rydel's. Sure it's on the other side of town near enough, but he could walk faster.

Suddenly, Ross' phone started ringing. It was probably Rydel asking where he was. She could be so impatient sometimes. But about moving to Australia, she seems more relaxed and calm about it – you would have thought that she didn't want to go. He answered the phone "Hello?"

"Ross, w-where are you?" Brad asked.

"Rydel wants me to go to hers to help her with more packing. I would have told you I was going but you were asleep and I didn't want to disturb you. Why? Are you alright?" Ross asked, sensing something in Brad's voice that told Ross he wasn't alright.

"No." Brad said, close to tears from the pain he was in.

Ross became a little panicked, trying to find a way he could get out of the lane he was in and turn around without causing a car crash "Why? What's wrong?"

"It's the baby. I think there's something wrong with it."

"What do you mean?" Ross asked.

"I don't know. I'm in so much pain right now, please come home, Ross. Please!"

"Alright, alright! I'll be as quick as I can! Just... hold on."

Ross hung up the phone, seeing that the lights were still on red and there was no way he was getting out from the lane he was in without killing himself and making the car go for a flying lesson down the road courtesy of another car. He quickly dialled another number on his phone, waiting impatiently for them to pick up.

Ross jumped up and down in his seat from being that impatient. And just as he was about to hang up, they answered. "Riker! Riker! I need your help."

"Why?" Riker asked, who was sat in his apartment taking a sip out of his drink.

"Did I ever get round to telling you that Brad's pregnant?"

Riker almost choked on the drink that was currently in his mouth "What?! How?! Is this a joke?" Riker asked.

"No! It's not! Listen, Riker. He's saying something's wrong because he's in a lot of pain, but I'm nowhere near home. Can you please go see him and get him to the hospital. I'll meet you there as soon as I can."

Riker got up from his seat, grabbing his keys off the table "Alright, but I swear to god this better not be some sort of joke!"

"Riker, it's not! Just fucking get to him!"

Riker held the phone away from his ear as Ross shouted down the other end of the phone. He put it back to his ear "Alright, alright, I'm going! But, how far along is he? He might have just... you know... gone into early labour."

If Riker was in front of Ross' car right now, he would run him over for his stupidity. He only saw Brad a few weeks ago and he didn't look any different, since then he's gained a little weight and he still doesn't look any different to how he used to. "Yes, Riker, two and a half months pregnant. If that was the case the baby would be the size of my hand."

"Ah... yeah..." Riker said, realising his little blonde moment "anyway, you get yourself to the hospital, and I'll go get him."

"Okay, thanks, Riker. And when you get there, if he doesn't answer, just say it's you so he does actually answer the door."

Riker nodded, exiting his apartment and locking his door "Alright, will do."

"Oh, and one last thing."

"What?"

"If for some odd reason you see Titus at all on your way to mine... Tell him I'll be paying him a 'friendly' visit at some point today."

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading! &amp; if any of you come up with a name for this chapter let me know lol<strong>

_**PLEASE REVIEW & ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW! :D**_

**Thoughts on Ross?**

**Thoughts on Rad?**

**Thoughts on Connor in this chapter & overall?**

**Thoughts on Tristan in this chapter & overall?**

**Thoughts on Riker?**

**Thoughts on Ross?**

**On a scale of 1 - 10 how much are you looking forward to the next few chapters? (you know, bc of Ross & what he said)**


	18. Not Your Fault

**Sorry it's short, but the next one will make up for it ;)**

_Ross/**Riker**_** texts.**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 or The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI Records!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 18<br>**_Not Your Fault_**  
><strong>

Riker knocked on the front door of Ross and Brad's apartment, waiting for Brad to answer the door. He waited for at least a minute and there was still no answer. He started banging louder and hitting the door with his fist "Brad! It's Riker! Are you there? Are you alright?" Riker asked.

Nothing.

All he could hear was the sound of Jesse barking and crying, which is unusual because Jesse never barks or cries at Riker when he knocks on the door or comes to visit. Which meant something was seriously up.

Riker continued to wait impatiently in some hope that Brad would answer, but his patience worn out. He tired his luck with the front door and lucky for him it was unlocked. Riker opened up the door and went into the apartment "Bra-!" Riker stopped, seeing that Brad had collapsed on the floor. That also being the reason why Jesse was barking and crying because she was nudging Brad with her snout to wake him up.

Riker immediately rushed over to him, shaking him in the hope it would wake him up but he wouldn't "Brad... Brad..." Riker kept repeating, getting gradually louder. He sighed, making sure that Brad still had a pulse and was actually breathing before he decided to scoop him up off the ground to take him to the hospital – seen as though it's useless calling an ambulance, given that by the time it would have gotten here Riker could have been there and back twice.

Ross pounded on the front door of Rydel's apartment, not stopping until someone answered the door. Rydel answered, looking less than impressed "What are you doing here? Why are you banging on the door like that for? You scared the hell out of the boys!" Rydel said, raising her voice.

Ross rolled his eyes "Is Titus around?" he asked.

"No. He's at his house and has been all day. But, I was just about to go and see him."

Ross shook his head "No you're not. You either stay here or you come to the hospital."

Rydel furrowed her brow "Why would I go to the hospital?" Rydel asked.

"Oh, you know, because Brad's there. Due to the fact that—you know what, I'm not even go there. He's in hospital because there's something wrong with the baby."

Rydel's eyes widened "Oh my, God. Sure, yeah, I'll come to the hospital. But, what about Tyler and Matty? I don't want them at the hospital. Especially around stuff like that, it might scare them. I'll just take them to Ellington's."

Now it was Ross' turn to furrow his brow in confusement "Why not Rocky's?"

Rydel sighed "We're no longer speaking to each other. We got into a fight."

"Alright... What about Connor? Why not him?"

"We're also no longer speaking to each other..."

Ross watched Rydel as she told him the two statements, and through his eyes she looked more hurt by the fact that Connor wasn't speaking to her any more rather than her own brother. Ross didn't bother to question her further as he had a feeling that he knew why, but it wasn't the most important thing right now. Brad was.

_Did you get to the hospital?_

_**Yeah. We're here. But when I got to yours he'd collapsed on the floor, so it made it a little bit more work than it should have been.**_

_Oh, did you get there okay, though?_

_**Yeah, yeah. We did, it's all good.**_

_Alright. Where abouts are you in the hospital?_

_**Seriously.**_

_What?_

_**Where else do you go in the hospital regarding a baby?!**_

_Oh... yeah._

_**Jesus Christ, Ross. You are stupid sometimes.**_

_Says the one asking if someone had gone into early labour with a 2 month old baby._

When Ross and Rydel had finally arrived at the hospital, the hallways were quiet and barely anybody was on them. Only doctors, nurses or patients/visitors leaving. That was good because that meant there was less chance of them all being caught by people that know them.

"Riker!" Ross called, running down the hallway with Rydel behind him as they approached where Riker sat in a waiting chair "is everything alright? Did he get seen to okay?" he asked.

Riker nodded, standing up "Yeah, he's been seen. I had to carry him in, obviously, but it was easy enough. He's surprisingly light. Yeah, I even got the honour of getting asked the glorious question which was 'am I the father'. Yeah... that wasn't awkward or anything..." Riker paused, cocking his head slightly "do I really look like you that much?"

"That's not important right now! Is he okay? Is the baby okay?"

At that point, Riker's face fell from confusion to sad and sympathetic. He didn't even have to say another word for Ross to understand what that meant. Ross sighed, shutting his eyes. "I'm sorry, Ross..." Riker said, stroking his arm.

Ross began to pace a little bit, starting to think. He was in the middle of sad and angry, he wasn't really sure what to think or feel right now. But there was only one main thought running through his head right now. "How did he have a miscarriage?" Rydel asked "did he have an accident or couldn't his body handle it or something?"

Riker shook his head "No. The doctor said he was fine and would have been able to carry the baby for nine months. So that only left stress, worry and accidents; I'm not sure about accidents though. Ross? Has he had some sort of an accident that might have harmed the baby in any way? Or has something happened that might have?" Riker asked, trying to be as sensitive and as gentle as he could.

Ross shook his head, staring out into space "I'm going to kill him. I'm going to physically kill him." Ross said, now not thinking about what he was saying at all.

"Who? What?"

Ross glanced over to Rydel, sending her a tiny glare, before facing Riker "Where is he?" Ross asked. Riker pointed to the room, not being sure if Ross was talking about Brad or somebody else when he said he was going to kill 'him'.

Without so much as another word said, Ross walked through into the room where Brad supposedly was. He opened up the door and found him curled up on the bed, sobbing. Ross sighed, walking over to him and stroking his back gently, given that he had his back facing him. Brad turned around in the bed when he felt someone touch his back, and he saw Ross which only made him cry more as he felt guilty "I'm s-sorry! I'm so sorry!"

Ross shook his head, bringing Brad into his arms, hugging him "It's not your fault." He said, kissing the side of his head.

"Y-yes it is. I could have been more careful."

"No," Ross pulled away from the hug and looked him dead in the eyes "listen to me, it's _not_ your fault. Don't you dare blame yourself. If anything it's mine, I should have protected you both more." He pulled Brad into a hug, staying that way for a while.

Ross let a few minutes slide by before he pulled away from the hug again "I know the stress and the worry was from that guy doing what he was doing to you... It's not hard to tell. There was nothing else for you to be worried or stressed about," he said, wiping away the current tears that were falling down Brad's face who knew where the conversation was going "So... I'm gonna ask you this, and I want you to give me an answer cos, I say this with all due respect; I'm not trying to be horrible, but there's no baby for him to harm any more so it makes the situation less major. But, who was it?" Ross asked.

Brad shook his head "No, if I tell you, he could still hurt you."

"Brad, I can look out for myself, just tell me."

"No I'm not putting you at the—"

"Was it Titus?"

Brad froze, not being quite sure what to say. He wanted to say yes, but that way he's telling Ross and if Titus finds out they'll both be buried six feet under. "Brad! Was it Titus? Yes or no?" Ross asked, raising his voice.

Brad went to go say something but stopped, making Ross wait. Brad nodded his head in response to Ross' question. "I'm gonna fucking kill him." Ross got up off the bed and made his way to the door.

"No, Ross! Please don't!" Brad shouted, panicking for what would be the outcome if Ross went to go face Titus.

Ross flung the door open "Watch me!" He roared, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Ross! Where are you going?!" Riker asked, watching as Ross stormed out of the room angrily.

"I'm about to go give someone something they deserve, which could quite possibly end in death, so I'll see you in jail, in like... what? A few hours?"

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><p><strong>As I said at the start, sorry it's crap, but I promise the next one might just make up for it ;)<strong>

_**PLEASE REVIEW & ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW IF YOU WANT THE NEXT ONE.**_

**Thoughts on Riker?**

**Thoughts on Rydel?**

**Thoughts on Ross & Riker's texts?**

**Thoughts on the baby?**

**Thoughts on Rad?**

**Thoughts on Ross?**

**Thoughts on Brad finally telling Ross?**

**What do you think the outcome of the next chapter will be? ;)**


	19. What Goes Around, Comes Around

**Okay, I might as well say it here instead of Twitter where I'll get punched in the throat for saying my opinion.**

**This whole 'Brad & Lauren' situation & with what James & Tristan said is getting out of hand, seriously, stop. Brad did NOTHING wrong & Connor did NOTHING wrong either. Seriously. If you're gonna start throwing hate around send it in James & Tristan's way bc they're the ones who said it, not them - but there's no need to send death threats & hate, especially in Brad's direction. In fact, Brad & Connor never said anything at all. Even with what James & Tristan said, I personally think it came out wrong & James even said himself it wasn't supposed to mean _that_. By "they all had a go" meant "they all had a go flirting with Fifth Harmony". Yes, what they said was wrong in a way, but it wasn't meant like that. But Fifth Harmony stepped out of line too by causing drama on Twitter by ACTUALLY posting about it. Did Brad? Did Tristan? Did Connor? No. James did, but he only cleared it up briefly by saying sorry & that it wasn't meant the way it sounded. Honestly, if you're calling James & Tristan "immature" for what they said, then what's Camila & Normani for starting drama on Twitter & bringing more attention to it? Just admit it, both bands were out of line (even if it was only 2/4 & 2/5). **

**Okay, rant over. WOO.**

**Sorry to start off the chapter like that lol I just needed to let this out in a place where I would less likely get punched in the throat for it. Unless any of you like Fifth Harmony more than The Vamps then... Sorry. That's just my opinion. It's not like I said that The Vamps were right & 5H are in the wrong, I'm not. It's just drama that'll go away& be gone by the end of the night.**

**Alright, NOW my rants over lol**

**Though, I say "sorry to start the chapter off like this"... I don't think this chapter gets any happier than above :''') It make you feel happy, but...ehhhh.**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 or The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI Records!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 19<br>**_What Goes Around, Comes Around_**  
><strong>

Minutes after Ross had stormed out of the hospital, Rydel found herself knocking on Ellington's front door where she had dropped Matty and Tyler off before she went down to the hospital. Ellington opened up the door, looking slightly surprised "That was fast." Ellington said. He had no clue why Rydel wanted him to look after the two boys, all he knew was that it had something to do with Ross and Brad.

Rydel nodded "Yeah. Are the boys here?"

"No. I let them go for a walk around the block."

Rydel rolled her eyes "Not funny. Can you get them? I'm taking them home." She said, clearly not happy.

"Whoa, what's wrong with you?"

Rydel sighed "Nothing. Me and Ross were at the hospital with Brad for something and all of a sudden he blew his top and stormed out of the hospital. I've never seen him so... angry before. I have no clue where he's gone either. He won't answer the phone to me. I've tried and tried again, but nothing. Even Riker has."

"Damn," Ellington said, he shrugged "well, that's Ross for you. I'll call him and see if I can find him in case he does anything stupid. You never know with him sometimes."

Rydel smiled "Thanks. Boys. C'mon, we're going. Say bye to Ellington." She called, seeing them sat on the sofa playing with each other. They both jumped down off the couch and said their goodbyes to Ellington before leaving with Rydel.

Ellington shut the door behind them and grabbed his phone off the table, dialling Ross' number as fast as he could. The phone rang to the point where Ellington thought Ross was going to reject his call too, but to his surprise Ross actually answered. "Hey, Ross," Ellington said "what are you up too?" he asked, trying not to give the game away that he was looking for him. Just in case he was up to no good and didn't want Rydel, Riker or Brad finding out.

"Everyone was right. It was going to be sooner or later before Titus crossed the line and blew his second chance."

"What's he done?" Ellington asked.

"He's the one who shot Brad two years ago and Brad found out a few weeks ago, but didn't tell me, and ever since Titus has been threatening and blackmailing him not too tell anybody ever since. And all that stress and worry made him have a miscarriage. So, I'm on my way to go kill him. Care to join me?"

Ellington threw his spare arm around in confusement, signalling for Ross to stop talking even though he could not be seen "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait... Miscarriage? As in pregnant, carrying a baby, but lost it miscarriage?" Ellington questioned, not sure if Ross had woken up with a brain this morning "do you know nothing about the male anatomy?"

Ross rolled his eyes "I'll give you the detailed explanation later but it doesn't matter right now! Yes, he was pregnant and he was when Titus shot him all those years ago!"

Ellington gasped "I told you that ultrasound was a misunderstanding!"

"WE'RE OVER THAT!"

"But seriously though... how is he even able to get pr—?"

"As I said before, I'll explain later," Ross said, interrupting him "right now, Titus will be lucky to have both his legs by the time I'm done with him."

"Ross... What are you gonna do..?"

"Oh, you know, just cause some potential pain and suffering. I might even get a little bit carried away and kill him by 'accident'. You know what they said. What goes around comes around."

Normally when Ross would speak like this, Ellington would just pass it off as a mental spur of the moment in his angry state. But not this time. There was something in Ross' voice that made Ellington aware that he was actually being serious about killing Titus, which made Ellington worry a lot.

Without saying another word, Ellington hung the phone up on Ross and immediately left his apartment to find Ross before he got to Titus' house. Because even though Ellington knows Titus deserves to die and be hurt, he is not worth Ross going to jail for.

Titus sat inside his house, waiting for Rydel to come round who should have been there around twenty minutes ago. Apparently something came up with Ross and Brad so she had to cancel that. He wasn't particularly bothered about it. It was just the people who it involved.

He sat on his own peacefully and became startled when someone started banging on his door constantly and non-stop – either waiting for Titus to answer the door or waiting for the door to break by them knocking on it so much. The door started shaking and began coming away from the door frame a little bit, showing this person was clearly angry and not in a good mood.

That ruled off Rydel. Sure she can be angry, but not that angry. She's not _that_ strong. Besides, why would Rydel be angry at him for?

Titus got up from where he sat and walked over to the door that still shook from being banged on "ALRIGHT! I'M COMING!" Titus shouted over the loud knocking. Thankfully it stopped as he put the keys in the door to unlock it.

As soon as the door opened one inch, it was pushed wide open and slammed shut again by Ross who barged through and grabbed Titus by his collar, tightly and harshly. "WHY'D YOU DO IT?!" Ross shouted.

"Why did I do what?" Titus asked, confused.

This questioned only resulted in Ross punching Titus in the face "Brad. He's in the hospital because he had a miscarriage. No thanks to you! _Again_!" By the end of the sentence, Ross had punched Titus in the stomach so that when he curled over Ross gladly took the opportunity of kneeing him in the belly.

Titus coughed, being winded "Ross... You have it all wrong!"

"I don't have it fucking wrong at all. Brad told me in the hospital, even though I already knew before that. Why do you think I've been treating you the way I have?" Ross asked, shaking in anger "he didn't tell me. It just wasn't hard to figure out that it was you by the way he was acting. I also know you shot him two years ago, just thought I'd add that in, and I wanna know why. Why did you do it? And why the hell have you been treating him the way you have?" Ross asked. Titus didn't respond. Ross grabbed him by the collar of his shirt again and threw him against the nearest wall at full force "Tell me. NOW!" Ross demanded.

"Because. Me and Rydel were perfectly happy until you brought him into our lives. Why? Because bringing him into our lives meant bringing Connor too and that ruined it completely," Titus began to explain, beginning to feel Ross' hand grip his neck "I mean, I knew it wasn't just Rydel's fault that she couldn't control herself, because it was also yours. So I wanted to hurt you" He said, his voice beginning to become raspy due to Ross' hand becoming tighter around his neck as he continued the explanation "I tried breaking you both up by spiking James' drink to the point where he couldn't control himself around Brad any more, but that didn't work, did it. Then I thought that maybe watching Brad slowly die would hurt you, and oh boy it did. The look on your face when he crumpled into your arms outside that diner bleeding to death was priceless. Unfortunately that didn't work. But I didn't know that until I got back with Rydel. I also tried getting rid of Connor; that didn't work either. The car crash killed the wrong person. That's why."

Ross could feel his blood literally boiling to the point where his hand was like a dog when it gets lockjaw after biting someone or something. It can't let go. "Why do you even care this much, anyway?" Titus asked, struggling to breathe.

Ross brought his hand away from Titus' neck and punched him in the face as hard as he could to the floor. Ross got on his knees and pulled Titus up so that he sat on his knees floppily and dizzy from the punch "Did you seriously just ask me that?" Ross asked, Titus nodded in response "lets see then... You shoot the one person I love more than anything in the entire world, killing our baby in the process, and then you scare the shit out of him to the point where he's too scared to be home alone in case you come by, and then you put that much stress and worry on him, you practically kill another baby that belonged to us. Why do _you_ think I care so much?" Ross asked.

Titus shrugs "Did I forget to mention that I'm also the reason why James is dead along with Laura?" Titus asked, with a little smirk just to satisfy Ross and his thirst for knowledge a little bit more.

That sentence made Ross' whole body go numb, not knowing what to feel. He kept a tight grip on Titus before completely losing it and throwing several hard punches at him. Titus tried to defend himself this time by punching Ross, which surprisingly made him fly back onto the floor.

Whilst Ross had fell onto the floor, Titus got up from the floor and dug his hand into the back of the couch where he had been hiding his gun ever since Rydel had been helping him pack for Australia because he didn't want her to find it in his drawers. Plus, she wouldn't be looking behind the pillows of the couch for anything would she?

Ross looked up from the floor seeing Titus coming towards him with the gun. Before he could even attempt to aim it at Ross, he got up from the floor and smacked the gun out of Titus' hand and punched him back to the floor, where to Ross is, where he belongs. "I see you're not as tough as you make out to be. I don't see why Brad was too scared of fighting back at you... He could probably take you on any day as well as me."

Titus started crawling backwards on the floor, backing away from Ross as he saw the look of evil in Ross' eyes – and Titus knows that look very well. Right now, Ross could be capable of anything and that scared him.

"Do you even love Rydel?" Ross asked, walking towards Titus as he backed away.

"Y-yeah... of course I do."

"Do you? Do you really?" Ross questioned "because the definition of love is not being with someone just so you can get revenge on their brother and his husband. No, that's not what it is, Titus. That's clearly _your_ definition and it's a pretty sick one. No, Titus, love is where you actually treat the person with respect and are actually with them because you want to be with them. Not for the reasons that you're obviously with Rydel for," Ross said, his voice getting louder and louder as he spoke, still gaining on Titus "it's when you wake up on a morning and you never get bored or tired of seeing them lay next to you or in your arms. And when they're gone for a short while or for a long time you actually feel lost and don't know what to do until they get back from wherever they are. Whether it be a shop, another city, another state, or another country. It's also where you protect them like they're your sibling – but obviously they're not because that would be dodgy," this gained a small laugh from Titus, but Ross glared at him which made him stop "love is also where they're all that matters to you because they're your entire world, and you would do anything for them. You don't want anything bad happening to them and more importantly you don't want anyone hurting them because you would not like to be the person that hurt them by the time you're finished with them," by this point Ross' voice was completely raised and the loudest it has probably ever been in his entire life. He wouldn't be surprised if outside could hear him, and quite frankly he didn't care "another example of love would be when they're dying in your arms with your unborn child on the floor outside some diner that barely anybody knows about and you feel as though your whole world is crumbling and all you want is for it to be over and to take their place because they're in that much pain and agony that you can't bare to watch it any more; all because some ass hole thought it would be great to shoot them for their own entertainment just to see somebody else get hurt!" Ross shouted, now shaking and on the verge of tears "so yes, Titus! I care a fucking lot about Brad to answer your question and yes, I will go to extreme lengths to make him as happy and as safe from you as possible! Because that's what love is, Titus and guess what, you just fucked with my entire world for the very last fucking time. So tell me again you love Rydel. I dare you! Because I know it's not true!"

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Ross started kicking, punching and beating the living daylights out of Titus uncontrollably to the point where he couldn't stop himself. Though, Riker and everyone else aren't here to help him, so he might as well give him a punch and a kick from everyone who couldn't be here, right?

One from Riker, Rocky and Ryland for hurting their sister all those years ago; one from Ellington for the same, except best friend; one from Tyler and Matty – each – because lets face it, they aren't exactly fond of him. One from Rydel, seen as though after this she'll want nothing to do with him and wish she'd have done this herself. One from the entire fan-base R5 and The Vamps had for scaring the crap out of them when Titus beat Rydel to a pulp and shot Brad.

And whilst they were on the subject of The Vamps, he may as well give him one each from Brad, Connor and Tristan too.

And last but not least; one from each individual that died at the hand of Titus. Laura, James, and the babies.

Finally, Ross kicked him as hard as he could in the chest, getting over his angry spur of the moment. This left Titus in a bloodied and bruised state from Ross' constant beating.

Ross started breathing heavily, trying to calm himself down but being unable too. "You know what..." Titus said, speaking up, being slumped against the wall, barely being able to move "I should have shot him when I had the chance a few weeks ago... Then I could have made sure he was dead before returning his dead body back to you. I would have loved to have seen the look on your face if that happened..."

Ross turned around still trying to calm himself down, but Titus ruined that completely. Ross walked up to Titus and gave him one last kick in the face before turning back round where something caught his eye on the floor.

The gun.

Suddenly, a grim thought sprung to Ross' mind.

Ross walked over and picked the gun up off the floor quite happily and aimed it at Titus "How about we have a little switch around. I do it, but to you. I'm sure Rydel wouldn't mind seeing your dead body on her front door step along with a few others. I mean, I won't just do it for myself. I'll do it for Brad and everyone else you've hurt and killed along the way."

Titus froze, staring up at Ross as he began fearing for his life "You weren't kidding when you said you'd do anything for him..."

Ross shook his head "No. No I wasn't. Right now, I'm capable of anything. And I would gladly go to jail for him for doing this."

Ross pulled back the hammer on the gun and put his finger on the trigger, getting ready to fire.

"ROSS WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?! STOP!" Ellington shouted, bursting through the door and seeing him aim the gun at Titus. At first he was going to knock, but he's glad he never.

He immediately rushed over to Ross and put his hand on top of Ross' that had the gun in it. Ross had tears in his eyes "Let me do it."

"No! I won't! You'll go to jail!"

"And?"

"_And_?" Ellington questioned "what about Brad?! Do you honestly want to leave him to live on his own for god knows how many years, waiting around for you to get out of jail! And everybody else who knows and cares for you?"

"He'll manage."

"No he won't! Ross, what about Rydel?! She won't be happy that you killed her boyfriend!" Ellington said, trying desperately to change Ross' mind.

"I don't care." Ross said, trying not to let tears fall.

"But what if you sleep with Brad between now and the time it takes for the police find you?! What if he falls pregnant again?! Do you think he'll be alright having to go through a nine month pregnancy by himself as well as raise the kid on his own until you get out of jail god knows how many years later? Think of it that way! How would Brad feel? He might want to see Titus dead, beaten and bruised, heck we all do! — and might I say, what a nice job you have done – but he loves you too much, way too fucking much, to see you go to jail for a crime that isn't even worth it. Ross. Titus is not worth going to jail for."

Ross breathed deeply. Ellington pushed Ross' hand down with the gun in it gently; Ross dropped the gun out of his hand so that it hit the floor, accepting that he wasn't going to do it no matter how much he wanted to. He sighed, now beginning to let the tears fall "But he deserves it..."

Ellington nodded "I know..."

"He shot Brad and caused Laura and James' death," Ross said, with Ellington nodding along even though the James and Laura thing was brand new news to him "he killed two unborn babies."

Ellington let Ross fall into his arms and cry "I know, I know... but, don't worry. What goes around comes around, and he'll get what he deserves eventually. I promise," Ellington pulled away from the hug "now, go back to the hospital and see Brad. He's probably worrying about you."

Ross nodded, wiping his eyes and making his way out of the house slowly.

"H-hey," Titus said, looking up at Ellington who hadn't moved "thanks... I owe it to you..."

Ellington picked up the gun from the floor and turned to face Titus "Now, now. I said it wasn't worth seeing _Ross_ go to jail for killing you. I didn't say anything about me," Ellington said, seeing the frightened look on Titus' face. Ellington burst out laughing, waving the gun around "I'm kidding. I don't have it in me to shoot you," his face then turned serious and he aimed it at him once more, kneeling down in front of him "but, I do at the same time. So here's the deal. You're going to leave. You're going to get on that plane to Australia sooner than next week... and you're gonna leave for good. And if you come back, I promise I will embed several of these bullets into your skull. Okay?" Ellington asked, smiling and baring his teeth.

Titus nodded, quickly. "Good." Ellington said.

Ellington got up from the floor, and as soon as he went to go walk away, he turned back around and hit Titus full force around the head with the gun, throwing it to one side after, and kicking him in the face one last time making Titus pass out.

Ellington smiled in satisfaction, leaving to catch up with Ross.

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><p><strong>Okay, so... I did not know how that was gonna end. Ross' character started taking off on his own &amp; ended up out of my control I was literally on the edge of my seat like "is he gonna kill him? Is he gonna kill him?" &amp; BOOM. Ellington kinda saves the day, I guess? Lol. This is what happens when you're a writer &amp; the characters start taking off on their own &amp; it's basically not under your control any more cx It's like Going In Circles all over again when that story started taking off on it's own,but hey! That story turned out pretty amazing :)<strong>

_**PLEASE REVIEW & ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW IF YOU WANT THE NEXT ONE!**_

**Thoughts on Ross & Ellington?**

**Thoughts on Ross?**

**Thoughts on Ellington?**

**Thoughts on Titus?**

**Thoughts on Ellington stopping Ross from going too far? Do you think he was right to?**

**Thoughts on Ellington's threat to Titus? Do you think Titus will follow it?**

**In Ross's little "speech" about love, I don't supposed two people in particular came into mind apart from the obvious? ;) **


	20. Ready to Go

**So sorry for not updating this in a while! I've been trying to put it into words correctly but it never happened until now lol**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 or The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI Records!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 20<br>**_Ready to Go_**  
><strong>

Tyler and Matty played in their bedroom whilst Rydel sat at home, looking at all the boxes and suitcases that were pretty much packed and ready for her, the boys and Titus moving to Australia next week. On one hand, she was more than excited to be moving to a different country, but on the other... she wasn't. Something didn't feel right about it.

Probably because she had stopped talking to everyone she cared about over this whole situation, she's leaving everything behind for a guy and her two sons don't even want to go themselves. Tyler and Matty have never directly said it, mainly because they're too young to understand why they don't want to go and can barely talk as it is, but she can tell by the way they look at her when she packs up some of their things and the response she gives to Tyler every time he asks why Connor hasn't been here lately.

She sighed, hearing someone knock at the door. She got up from where she sat and answered it. Her eyes widened "Oh my, God! Titus! What the hell happened to you?!" She asked, seeing he was all bloodied and bruised. She shut the door and pulled him in, making him sit down on the couch.

"It's nothing, it's alright."

"No it's not alright! What happened?" She asked, running to get some tissues and cloths to clean up his face.

"Er... I got jumped by two people."

"In broad daylight?" Rydel questioned, coming out of the kitchen.

"Yeah, it was pretty quiet where I was. Nobody was around. At least that's what I thought, but then boom... I'm on the floor."

"Did they take anything?" She asked.

Titus shook his head "I don't have anything on me worth taking. Calm down, Rydel. I'm alright."

Rydel sighed, sitting back next to him. She ran her hands through her hair "Sorry, I'm just... stressed out about moving to Australia."

Titus rolled his tongue around in his mouth "Yeah... About that..." He said, making Rydel look at him "we're not going next week."

"We're not?" Rydel asked, feeling some sort of emotion inside her. She couldn't tell if it was happiness or relief.

Titus shook his head "No. My parents got the tickets mixed up."

"So when are we leaving?"

"We're leaving in two days."

Rydel froze where she was, not being sure what to say to that. Two days. She was almost done packing, all she had left was her clothes and that was it. She was done and ready to go. It was just two days wasn't enough to fix things with everyone she had lost over this. Rocky, Connor... That would take way too long to fix.

And knowing that she was going to have to move away for god knows how many years with things unfixed with them made her feel numb. She sighed with a smile "Two days. I can't wait." She said, giving him a hug; frowning when her face was hidden from him.

"Yup. Two days and you'll be away from all your problems, troubles and worries."

Rydel shut her eyes, trying not to get emotional "Yup... Can't wait."

Riker sighed heavily in frustration, coming out of the room Brad was in. He wasn't frustrated at Brad, he was frustrated at the fact he had to go in there and comfort Brad himself because Ross wasn't there to do it. To be honest, if Riker was Ross he would have done the same thing. He got Brad to explain to him why Ross ran out the way he did and he told him everything about Titus and the baby and everything else Titus had done in the past.

At least, he got what he could because Brad wasn't exactly clear in his speech with him crying out of sadness and fear of what Ross was gonna do.

Another thing that annoyed him. Ross making Brad cry and upset every time he doesn't think straight, and Brad never cries unless he has a reason to.

And every time he does it's always because of Ross.

He took his phone out of his pocket, going to call Ross for the 100th time.

"Riker!"

Riker turned his head, seeing Ross coming up the hallway with Ellington not far behind. Riker put his phone back into his pocket "Where the fuck have you been?!" Riker asked, raising his voice and going towards him to meet him halfway.

Ross rolled his eyes "It doesn't matter any more. Is Brad alright?" Ross asked, about to go into the room.

Riker stopped him "No. He's not alright. He's in there crying his eyes out because of you! _You_! He's hurting over the loss of your baby and what do you go and do?! Leave him just to go give payback to some guy who doesn't even deserve your time! Couldn't it have waited another day? He needed you in there, in fact he still does," Riker breathed deeply, seeing Ross had fallen silent "seriously. Why is it every time I've heard or seen him cry it's always because of you?"

"What?" Ross asked, giving him a funny look "what are you talking about? He rarely ever cries. This being one of the rare moments."

Riker nodded "Yeah, I know! And those rare moments are always because of you!"

"Oh, yeah, really? How?"

"Alright, calm down." Ellington said, standing in between them both as he could feel the tension begin to rise

"Should we go down the list?" Riker asked, holding up his hand and counting on his fingers "how about when you punched him in the face and broke up with him because of a stupid misunderstanding? Yeah, that's right, Tristan told me all about _that_ day. The Diner? I'm gonna be ninety nine per cent sure he cried then. How about the first time he found out he could get pregnant? It was your baby! Therefore, your fault. What about when you found out about that baby? Did he cry then?" Riker asked, Ross nodded "why did he cry?" he asked.

"I kinda... thought the wrong thing and shouted a lot... and told him I was... disgusted."

"There we go! And now he's crying again because of you! I used to be one hundred per cent sure that you loved him a hell of a lot, but now I'm not."

Ross scoffed "Are you being serious? Of course I love him! I just went and beat the crap out of Titus for what he did to him! Not to mention I almost put a bullet through his skull and if it wasn't for Ellington running in when he did, I would have done it and I would probably be on my way to jail right now! So don't you fucking dare tell me I don't love him!" Ross shouted, pushing Riker out the way and going into the room Brad was in.

Ellington sighed, wiping his face "Can we not fight please? I'm done with fighting today," Ellington jumped when he heard the door to Brad's room slam shut with a loud bang "and I'm also done with loud noises!"

"Is it true?" Riker asked.

"Is what true?"

"Did you stop Ross from putting a bullet through Titus' skull?"

Ellington nodded, puffing his cheeks "I swear to god, if I had been as much as a millisecond late... He would have pulled that trigger and immediately regretted it the moment I walked through that door," Ellington breathed deeply "so I told him Titus isn't worth him going to jail but... I didn't say anything about me."

Riker's face fell "You didn't..."

Ellington shook his head "No. I'm not stupid. But, I did threaten him with it if he ever comes back from Australia. He shit himself."

Riker nodded, slightly impressed "Oh... Well then..." He patted his arm "you're a lot tougher than you make out to be." he said, sitting down on the nearest seat.

Ellington smiled "Thanks," the smile dropped "hey!"

Brad jumped, hearing the door slam shut. He looked over and saw Ross leaning against it, having his back to him. "Ross..?" Brad said, slightly scared by Ross' entrance.

Ross sighed "Sorry. Riker just... annoyed me. It was better than hitting him, and honestly, I'm in that mood right now." He breathed deeply, trying to calm himself down. He turned around and made his way to the bed Brad laid in "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you," He said, sitting down on the edge of the bed "don't you dare say it's alright, cos it's not."

Brad shook his head, stroking Ross' face where there was a red mark from where Titus hit him in defence earlier "You went and seen him didn't you..." Brad said, Ross nodded "I didn't want you to do anything!"

"Well it's too late now! I was angry! And what was better? Letting my anger out on him or you?" Ross asked, he put his head into his hands and sighed heavily.

"It's still not the point... If you did anything serious to him, isn't Rydel going to ask questions? Because I have the strangest feeling he won't hold back on telling her you attacked him. When I said specifically not to because of what he could do!"

Ross scoffed "Trust me, Brad. He's not going to do anything. I think I made that pretty clear."

Brad sighed, putting his head into his hands. Ross slowly sat next to him on the bed, putting his arm around him "Look... he had it coming to him sooner or later. Whether if it was for what he's done in the past to Rydel, or if it was for something he was bound to do eventually. It just so happened to be sooner."

"Was it worth the start of a black eye?"

Ross nodded "Oh hell yeah. He got worse, trust me. He even nearly ended up with a bullet in his skull," Ross said, beginning to laugh, but then he saw the bemused look on Brad's face and he sobered up his laughter "I was aggravated..."

"That's your excuse for holding a gun at someone?"

"He deserved it! Jesus Christ, Brad, are you sure you're not pregnant any more? Cos let me tell you, you've still got the fucking hormones for it!" Ross snapped, not really choosing his choice of words carefully. By the time Ross realised what he had said was wrong, it was too late to take it back "Aw... shit. I'm giving you a one way ticket t—"

Brad cut Ross' sentence off by hitting him as hard as he possibly could in the face. That hard, Ross fell off the bed and landed on the floor. Ross blinked a few times, rubbing his jaw, having the strange feeling of day ja vu from the last time someone punched him in the face and he ended up on the floor. Ironically, it was Brad's dad.

Ross got up off the floor "You know what," he said, moving his jaw to make sure it was still working and not broke "just ignore me today. I'm being a bit of an ass and not thinking stra—oh look, we've started." He said, taking note on how Brad had already laid down and turned his back on Ross. He sighed "I'll er... I'll be outside with Riker and Ellington. Or at home..."

Brad didn't respond to him, he waited until he heard Ross leave the room before practically face palming the pillow on the bed and letting out a frustrated sigh. Unlike Ross, he could actually hold in his anger and let it out without hitting anybody. Of course what he just did contradicts that, but Ross deserved it for what he said. He knows it wasn't that offensive or cruel, but it was to Brad.

Ross doesn't understand how bad he feels about the fact he let a second baby die because of his own repeated stupidity. The first time was not telling Ross about the baby and the second, again, was for also not telling Ross about Titus. Making it Brad's fault. Just as it always is with them two. Every time something bad happens in their relationship, it always seems to be ninety-five of Brad's fault.

Like now.

He let a few tears fall down his face and tried to stop them, but that only resulted in him beginning to sob.

That was when he felt two hands wrap around his waist from behind and someone lightly kiss his neck. Brad turned around to see Ross laying down next to him in the empty spot on the bed, given it was small, and already having his arms open to comfort him. Ross stroked his hair gently as he rested his head into his chest and started crying "I'm sorry." Ross said, trying not to cry himself.

Brad tried his hardest not to break down but clearly it never happened. He still broke. He doesn't know if it's because of the hormones still affecting him, or if it's just for the fact that he's weak. Maybe that's why Ross is so over protective of him. Because he thinks Brad is literally that weak and can't look out for himself when he can. It's just hard to see that sometimes.

Well you know what.

One of these days Ross is going to have to depend on Brad because _he_ isn't able to defend himself.

And Brad really isn't looking forward to that day.

Connor breathed deeply, approaching the door of Rydel's apartment. He decided to stop being stupid about this whole Australia situation and actually act like a decent human being. That, and if he's never going to see Rydel again he might as well just make the most of it whilst she's still around, right?

He knocked on the door, waiting nervously for her to answer. What if she was angry at him because of him walking out the way he did? She probably doesn't want to see or speak to him.

He waited until finally she came to the door. Rydel opened up the door and smiled when she saw Connor who smiled back at her "Connor..." She said.

"Hey..." He said, walking into the apartment as she let him in "is Titus here?" he asked.

Rydel shook her head, shutting the door "No. He went home about an hour ago. Um... what are you doing here?" Rydel asked.

Connor looked around, sighing when he saw all the boxes and suitcases packed for Australia and ready to go. You would have thought that she was moving tomorrow – she looked that done with packing. He faced her again, forcing a smile on his face "I just came by to say sorry."

"For what?"

"For how I acted. It was... immature and self-centred. I didn't think about you or how you felt at all. I was just thinking about myself rather than you and your happiness as well as the boys'."

Rydel smiled, stepping closer and rubbing his arm "It's alright, I understand. I would have acted the same way if it was the other way around and you were moving to a far away country where I'd never see you again. Lets face it. Wouldn't everyone?" She asked, Connor nodded. "Is that all you came for? To say sorry?"

"I guess. I wanted things to be okay and fixed between us before you left to Australia I didn't want things to be ruined and you leaving thinking I hated you when I don't. Far from. I know how it feels to end on a bad note with someone and not being able to fix it because they're gone and can't come back..."

Rydel gave him a reassuring smile "Don't worry. I'm sure I would have realised sooner or later that you're too nice to hate or hold a grudge against someone."

Connor let out a soft laugh "Thanks."

"Daddy!"

Connor turned around, hearing the boys' bedroom door open, where he saw Matty come running to him. He crashed into his legs, hugging Connor. "Well... there's a surprise," Connor said, expecting it to be Tyler instead of Matty, lifting him up into his arms "I'm not your Dad, Matty. You know that."

Matty shook his head, hugging him as if to say 'yes you are'. Rydel smiled in awe. "How come there's so many boxes?" Connor asked, looking around at them before back at Rydel "you're going next week. I would have thought you'd have finished a few days before then."

Rydel sighed, frowning as she looked down "Yeah... about that um... Titus' parents got the flights mixed up," she said, seeing Connor's face fall "we leave in two days. Actually, not even that. A day and a half."

"A day and a half?" Connor repeated, Rydel nodded. He looked at Matty and slowly put him down "I'll come see you in a minute. Go to your room." He said. Matty obeyed and quickly left to his room where Tyler was. He faced Rydel "Two days?" Connor asked, finding it suspicious at how it had suddenly dropped from one week to two days "since when?"

"Since today. He told me about an hour ago. Please don't get mad again..." She said, slightly begging.

Connor shook his head "I-I'm not... I'm just... letting it sink in. You're leaving... You're going in two days..." He said, Rydel nodded along "that means... tomorrow is the last day I'll ever see you."

Rydel furrowed her brow "I thought you were trying to find a way back to England tomorrow. Isn't that more important?" Rydel asked.

"Oh... yeah..." Connor said, looking away for a moment. He looked back at Rydel "This is the last time I'll ever see you. Right now."

Rydel nodded "Y-yeah... It is..."

"Just like that?"

"Yeah... Just like that..."

Connor breathed deeply "Wow... Well... I don't... I don't know what to say," he said, seeing Rydel smile sadly with tears glistening in her eyes "don't cry."

Rydel let a tear escape from her eye as soon as he said that before Connor stepped closer and hugged her. She hugged him back. "I suppose... If this is it, then... You better say what you want to say right now. Cos... honestly... we won't have another time." Rydel said. She pulled away from the hug.

Connor tried to think. He sighed and shook his head "I can't think of anything at all. Other than... have a nice time in Australia and make sure you look after our boys. Especially Tyler."

"I will don't worry."

"Please, Rydel. For the love of god don't get yourself into a mess over there."

Rydel laughed, wiping her eyes "Oh, Connor. You always were the one to brighten the mood in a sad moment," She said, making Connor laugh softly "but, don't you worry. I've got Titus, Matty and Tyler. We'll be a happy family living together like a family should. Even if one of the kids isn't his. Don't worry though, I won't let Tyler forget who you are."

"Thank you."

Rydel smiled "No problem. I'm gonna miss you."

"I'm gonna miss you too. Just... Do me a favour? If he ever goes back to causing trouble or goes back to his old ways. Promise me you'll get the next flight back over here no matter it takes?" Connor asked.

"I promise. Is that all you want me to do?"

Connor paused for a moment. He tensed a little before relaxing. He nodded his head "Yeah. That's all. I guess I er... I better go and let you rest for your long flight."

"Yeah... You better. I guess I'll see you if I ever get the chance and money to come back to the USA, right?" Rydel said, Connor nodded "and who knows. Maybe me and Titus will have tied the knot and gotten married by then."

"Y-yeah... Maybe."

Rydel nodded towards the door "Go on. We've dragged this out too long. Get out of here before you make it even more painful for me." She said, joking slightly.

"I'll get out of your way, sorry," He hugged her again, for the final time "Goodbye, Rydel."

"Goodbye, Connor. Thanks for everything."

"Thanks for everything too." Connor pulled away from the hug and smiled at her, leaning in and giving her a quick peck on the cheek. "See ya."

Connor walked over to the door and opened it up, standing in the doorway and looking Rydel up and down for the last, just so he could remember what she looked like every time he thought about her. Rydel waved at him and afterwards Connor shut the door, leaving. Rydel sighed, shutting her eyes.

Once the door was shut, Connor leaned against it for a few seconds beginning to think.

And that was when realisation hit him hard.

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><p><strong>I. AM. SO. EXCITED. FOR. THE. NEXT. CHAPTER. YOU. HAVE. NO. IDEA. WHY. Mainly bc it ends on a very exciting cliffhanger udshdsudfsodfsohfhsfhfshioihoihwof<strong>

**Hey, look, we're back to "Paige-making-you-all-watch-a-Vamps-or-R5-or-The-Vamps-&-R5-together-video" again like in My English Love Affair. Haha, no but seriously. Just type in on YouTube "The Vamps on Sunrise 22/1/15" & the video should come straight up (rather than me linking it to you all individually like last time. Basically, James had to have an operation on his wrist which means he can't play guitar for the next 2 months (poor baby (a/n: pardon the pun bc this story but whatever that was cruel)) & they were singing Somebody To You & Brad let him sing the second verse (he doesn't normally he usually sings the bridge) & idk dude... it just made my heart flutter & you need to watch it. Bc. 1. Jadley. 2. It might make your heart flutter too or make you do something funny like it did to me \o/**

**I'm still looking for that Connor VS Rydel Strawberry Lace Challenge video The Vamps & R5 did together. I keep watching the clip at the end of the chubby bunny video Rocky & James did & it's really bugging me ahuhifjklnhdjxuvjkmc, bhjnm. Oh well, I'm sure I'll stumble upon it one day unexpectedly. Le sigh.**

_**PLEASE REVIEW & ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW IF YOU WANT THE NEXT ONE!**_

**Thoughts on Rydel?**

**Thoughts on Titus?**

**Thoughts on Riker?**

**Thoughts on Ross & Riker?**

**Thoughts on Ross?**

**Thoughts on Rad?**

**Thoughts on Matty?**

**Thoughts on Connor & Rydel's goodbye?**

**Thoughts on Connor?**

**Thoughts on Rydel?**


	21. Surprises

**I know I only got 3 reviews on the last chapter but I couldn't wait any longer bc I AM SO EXCITED FOR THE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS & YOU WILL SEE WHY & I KNOW YOU WILL TOO!**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 or The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI Records!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 21<br>**_Surprises_

Rydel threw the last suitcase into the living room. Everything was packed and ready to go tomorrow. The apartment was basically empty, all that was left in it was the furniture they weren't taking. Everything else, apart from their clothes, had been sent over ahead of them this morning. She sighed, slumping down on the couch.

She couldn't believe that by this time tomorrow she'll be on a plane moving to another country with her boyfriend. Rydel grimaced at the word 'boyfriend'. She shook her head, letting her feelings get in the way again. The feelings she has about moving to Australia without fixing things with Rocky. Now, he is one to hold a grudge and never speak to someone again. Even if it is his own sister.

"Mommy?"

Rydel turned her head, seeing Matty stood next to her at the couch "Yes?"

"Where's Daddy?"

"He's at home. He'll be coming round in the morning to pick us up so we can get on the plane."

Matty shook his head "Not that Daddy. Is he coming to say goodbye?"

Rydel sighed, stroking his hair with a small smile. She shook her head "I don't think so, sweetie. I said my goodbye to him yesterday," She said, seeing Matty frown "it's okay though. You've got Titus, he's just as good as Connor." _What a lie._

"No he's not!" Matty stomped angrily, like a toddler would, before running off into his room.

Rydel threw her head back, covering her face with both her hands and screamed loudly in frustration.

"Screaming over something not going your way. Now, that's the Rydel I know."

Rydel uncovered her face and looked over to the door, seeing Rocky stood at there. He threw her a small smile and walked towards her slowly. "Why are you here?" Rydel asked.

"Because, if somebody else doesn't do it, I'm gonna have to. Are you still leaving tomorrow?" Rocky asked, Rydel nodded. Rocky sighed "Why?"

"Because I want to... It's like a once in a life time opportunity to move to another country."

Rocky nodded "Yeah, and it's also a once in a life time opportunity to move to another country with your boyfriend who has an abusive past. Cos, I'm telling you now Rydel, you will be coming back to the USA. But, you'll be returning in a coffin. Or even worse, Tyler or Matty or both of them will."

Rydel stood up from where she sat, getting defensive "No they won't! I won't let him hurt them if he turns to his old ways! How many times do I have to get it through everyone's thick skulls?!"

"The only person with a thick skull around here is you for so many reasons. The number one reason being that you're moving away from your friends and family with an ass hole where there is nobody to protect you if something goes wrong. The second reason being that you are blind. There are so many other people who you can be with that will treat you better than Titus and will love you more."

Rydel shrugged, not caring. She couldn't care less if there was somebody else out there better than Titus. She hated that everyone was trying to control her and tell her how to live her life at the moment. Yes, she knows that maybe it is a bad idea moving to Australia with him. But she doesn't care. Nothing in this world is going to make her change her mind.

Not Rocky, not Ross, not Riker. Not even Connor. And even he hasn't tried to stop her.

"Look, I'm just scared that the next time I see you, you won't see me. You'll be up there with James and Laura wishing you had listened to everyone." Rocky said, looking down. He hated that he had to act this way with her, but it was the only way he would be able to get it drilled into her mind.

"And if you do, and I am... at least you get the satisfaction of saying you were right and I told you so."

Rocky stared at Rydel "You really don't care do you," Rocky said, Rydel shook her head. Rocky scoffed "Oh my, God. He's changed you so much. The Rydel I know wouldn't have even thought twice about moving to another country with him, let alone Australia. Something is up with you. Either he has changed you or you're running from something that you don't want to face."

Rydel froze, not knowing what to say. Rocky smirked "You are running from something... What are you running from?"

"N-nothing! You're being ridiculous, Rocky! If you're not gonna have a serious conversation with me and say goodbye properly then get out!"

Rocky stayed where he was, staring at Rydel "Alright." He turned around and headed for the door "if that's how you want it to be and end."

Rydel stepped forwards, immediately regretting what she had said "Rocky—"

Rocky stopped her, opening the door "No, no. It's what you want and I'm gonna respect that. Have a nice time in Australia, Rydel. I'll meet you in the morgue in a few months!" He waved, giving her a sort of salute, before leaving with the door slamming shut behind him.

"I FUCKING HATE YOU WHen you're right..."

Brad fell backwards, collapsing onto his and Ross' bed. He sighed happily "I hate hospital beds."

"Then stop ending up in hospital," Ross said, only for a pillow to collide with his face seconds later. He picked it up and threw it back "Have you said goodbye to Rydel yet?" Ross asked.

"What do you think?" Brad asked, sitting up on the bed.

"Alright, sorry. I was going to see her for the last time tonight instead of getting in her way tomorrow. Are you gonna come?" Ross asked, Brad nodded "good. I'll let her know."

Ross left the bedroom, shutting the door behind him, going to find his phone in the living room so he could call Rydel. He found it sat on the dining room table. He picked it up, going to dial Rydel's number when he saw he had a couple of missed calls from an unknown number. A number he had never seen before in his entire life.

Ross went to go delete the numbers but he got an incoming call from the same number as he went to. Clearly, whoever it is, is trying their best to get hold of him. He was reluctant to answer at first, thinking it might have something to do with Titus, but after the other day he doesn't think Titus wants to come within breathing distance of him. He answered the phone "Hello?" Ross said.

"Hello? Hello! Oh my, God! I'm so glad I got hold of you! I thought I'd got the wrong number from his phone!"

Ross furrowed his brow, hearing a female voice "Who's this? Who's phone?" Ross asked.

The girl laughed on the other side of the phone "You really don't remember me?" She asked, feeling slightly offended but finding it funny at the same time. Typical Ross.

Ross shook his head "No... Mainly because I can't see you, and... because I don't recognise your voice. Are you an old crazed fan I've met like... twenty times?"

She let out another laugh "Oh, Ross. I use to be. But... then one day you walked into that diner and well... it went from being a fan to a good friend."

"Sally?"

"Hey! He remembers!"

"Oh my, God! How the hell did you get my number again?" Ross asked, sitting down at the table.

"I tried asking Tristan and Connor but they weren't answering their phones, so... I had to go through James'," She said, staring down at his phone in her hands as she played with it "I didn't particularly want to... but... hey. I'm actually surprised it's still charged. I mean, obviously it has to be, it hasn't been used for a while."

Ross let out a soft laugh, soon realising he probably shouldn't have as it was probably quite a sensitive topic for her "Yeah... Sorry. Um... I didn't see you in England when we were over there... You didn't go to his funeral either."

Sally frowned "I know. I came back to America to see my family; he didn't come with me, obviously otherwise he'd still be alive. I asked him to but he said no because he didn't want to invade or cause a fuss. I swear to god that boy was too god damn sweet and kind sometimes," She sighed "Nobody told me he had died until I got back a few days after the funeral. I wondered why he wasn't answering his phone. I just assumed he'd dropped it and it broke or something. I was going to assume the worst after; then I realised again... He's James. Why would he do something like to me or anybody for that matter?"

Ross shrugged "Well, I don't know... Give him a few drinks that have been spiked and well... ask Brad."

Sally rolled her eyes "Not this again—wait, what. Spiked?"

"Yeah... it's too long of a story. I'll tell you another time. Isn't this call costing you a lot?"

"It will. I don't really think that far ahead though. Listen, I want to talk to you."

"You're doing that now."

"I want to talk to you face to face. I'm coming back to America to live. I can't stay in England any more without him. It's just... ugh."

"Won't coming back to America be worse? I mean... it's where you both got together."

Sally shrugged "I didn't live with him or travel the world with him when he was on tour with his band for the last time in America. Well, technically I did, but not for long. Seriously though, can we meet and talk face to face? Alone."

Ross nodded "Yeah, sure. Where?" Ross asked, Sally went to go say but he stopped her "don't you dare say where I think you're going to say because I haven't been there since."

"It was two years ago, Ross. Plus, it's the only place I know in LA!"

"No it's not!"

"Alright, you got me. Please, though? It'll be just like old times and bring back old memories," She said, pausing "specifically ones that didn't make you cry."

"You haven't changed one bit." He said, commenting on her sarcastic, sassy attitude.

"No I have not," She said, making Ross sigh and rub his head "alright, fine. We won't go there. We'll just... go elsewhere. I don't know."

"No, no. It's fine. We'll go _there_ if it makes you happy and more comfortable." Ross said, groaning slightly.

Sally smiled, being satisfied "YAY! Make sure to bring your bullet pro—"

"Don't you dare finish off that sentence."

"Sorry," She said, slouching a little in her seat "but yeah, I should be back over soon. I'll let you know and we better meet there or I will re-create the events that happened there, minusing one person, with my bare hands."

Ross let out a soft laugh "I will. Don't worry. I stick to my words and what I say."

"Yeah, so do I."

Ross shook his head, forgetting how much Sally made him smile and laugh "I better be going now. See you soon."

"Woo! I'm excited! Yay for us!"

"Yay for American Diners." Ross said sarcastically and flatly.

_**The Next Day**_

Rydel stepped out of the taxi outside the airport, taking out all the suitcases with the help from Titus and the taxi driver whilst Tyler and Matty stood on the pavement waiting for them both. Once everything was out, the taxi driver shut the boot and Titus paid him.

Rydel turned around, looking at a plane that had just taken off. It was scary to think that in an hour or so she would be on one. "C'mon, lets go otherwise we'll miss the flight." Titus said, grabbing her arm gently and guiding her.

"C'mon on boys." She said, looking down at Tyler and Matty. Knowing that either of them didn't want to be anywhere near Titus, she picked up Tyler and held him in one arm whilst holding Matty's hand with her spare one whilst Titus pushed the trolley with all the luggage on it.

Once she approached the door, she turned around, taking a look around like she was looking for something or someone. Hoping to see something. But no. Nothing was there that she wanted to see.

"Rydel!" Titus called, being inside.

Rydel turned around and walked inside "Sorry. I thought I saw something," she sighed, smiling "Australia here we come."

Ross walked out of the bathroom, holding his eye and looking over to Brad who was sat down on the couch "I think I've gone blind in one eye."

Brad looked over the back of the couch at him "Why?"

"Because my eye really hurts!"

Brad furrowed his brow "Why?"

Ross removed his hand from where he hid his eye, where Brad saw the bruise and he hissed. "Thank you by the way!" Ross said, making his way to the kitchen to get some ice.

"Me?! What did I do?!"

"You punched me!"

"So did Titus!"

"In defence!" Ross popped his head out from the kitchen door and over to Brad "that, and he punched me in the other eye. You know? The one that isn't damaged, cut or bruised what so ever cos he swings a punch like a girl."

Brad laughed, but sobered up as soon as Ross glared at him "Sorry."

"Hey, you're a lot tougher and stronger than you look! I don't bruise easily!"

Brad shrugged "Eh, you know what they say. It's always the quiet ones. Or in this case—" he looked back at Ross and smiled to mock him "—the small ones."

"Whatever." Ross said, flatly, and disappeared into the kitchen.

_Knock. Knock._

Brad looked over to the front door "Ross. I don't suppose you're expecting anybody today."

"Nope."

Brad shook his head, getting up from the couch and walking over to the door. He opened up the door to find Connor stood there, looking more miserable than he ever had done in his entire life of knowing him. Connor sighed heavily and loudly, making it last a few seconds "Hi..." He groaned, having his head slightly thrown back as Ross came out of the kitchen. "What the hell happened to you?" Connor asked, noticing Ross' eye "you look like you've walked into a metal pole."

"Abuse. That's what happened."

"Well, don't be an ass hole next time and you won't get punched in the face." Brad said.

"Well next ti—I'm gonna stop right there."

Brad nodded "I would," he faced Connor again, seeing the miserable look still plastered on his face. If anything, after watching Ross and Brad just then he looked even more miserable. "What's wrong?" Brad asked "have you been to say goodbye to Rydel and the boys today before they left?"

Connor shook his head "Nope."

Brad rolled his eyes, thinking this meant he hadn't said goodbye "Seriously? Why not? Is this because you fell out with Rydel last week over her moving to Australia? Are you really hitting that level of low?" Brad asked, Connor stayed silent, doing nothing but stare at Brad like he was about to cut through him "Tyler's your son! You shouldn't have to let that get in the way of you saying goodbye to him. Imagine how he feels right now because he never got to see his Dad and say goodbye to him for the last time," he said, making Connor stay even more silent than he was being "seriously though, why didn't you go say goodbye to them?"

Connor sighed again "I'm in love."

Brad raised his brow, and Ross froze on the spot hoping this wasn't going where he thought it was going. "What do you mean you're in love?" Brad asked "you didn't go say goodbye to them because you're in love? Who the hell are you in love with that is more important than Tyler?"

"I'm in love with Rydel."

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><p><strong>BOOM. BOOM. FUCKETY BOOM BOOM. PUT THAT ON YOUR PLATE AND EAT IT. So, raise your hand if you've been waiting for this moment since My English Love Affair like I know most of you have! :) Even though... he's a little late on timings lol bUTT I AM SO EXCITED FOR THE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS OMFG.<strong>

**I just imagine you all shouting "He realises now" lol**

_**PLEASE REVIEW & ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW!**_

**Thoughts on Matty?**

**Thoughts on Rocky?**

**Thoughts on Rydel?**

**Thoughts on Sally coming back? Have you missed her?**

**Thoughts on Ross & Sally's friendship? Have you missed it?**

**Thoughts on Rad in this chapter? (it's a refreshing change to have a light sense of humour rather than pain isn't it? lol)**

**Thoughts on Connor?**

**On a scale of one to ten how much are you looking forward to the next few chapters & want to punch me in the face with a shovel?**


	22. Out of Options

**Okay, seriously, it's really annoyed me how only 2 people are reviewing & commenting, letting me know what they think, when there is WAY more than 2 people following the story, Like, it literally doesn't take more than 30 seconds to answer the questions at the end & let me know what you think. It's not that difficult.**

**Anyway.**

**Glad you all liked the last chapter, I know Codel (Connor/Rydel) is something you have all been waiting for since My English Love Affair & well... Here is the official start of it ;)**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own R5 or The Vamps, all rights go to Hollywood &amp; MercuryVirgin EMI Records!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 22<br>**_Out of Options_

"You're what." Brad said, blinking a few times. He didn't know if it was in disbelief at the fact Connor is in love with Rydel, or the fact that he just realised it now.

"I'm in love with Rydel."

Brad put his hands over his mouth, trying to find the correct words to say but nothing would come out no matter how much he tried. He turned around, hoping Ross would say something. Even he had nothing. Brad faced Connor again, taking his hands away from his mouth "You just realised this now." Brad said.

Connor shook his head, beginning to look thoughtful "No... I'd say I've known for quite a while now."

Brad's mouth fell open, and instead of saying anything, he slapped Connor senseless around the head for being so stupid "Why the hell didn't you do anything?!" Brad asked, raising his voice.

"Alright!" Ross said, rushing over and putting his arm in between them both to stop Brad from hitting Connor "don't fight. We get it. Connor's a dumbass."

Connor rubbed his head, beginning to get a headache and feel dizzy "Aw, Jesus Christ, Brad... you could kill someone with those hands, ow... I didn't know I loved her until... I left her apartment the other day."

"Why didn't you say anything to her?"

Connor shrugged "I don't know. Because it was too late. She's gone, well going. I know her plane doesn't set off for another hour or so but, lets face it... The chance has gone and has been gone for a long time."

Brad rolled his eyes, pulling Connor into the apartment and shutting the door. He pointed over to the couch "Sit," Brad said, Connor went to go protest and got cut off by Brad "I said sit!"

Ross took a step back, getting out of Connor's way and letting him go sit down. Clearly Brad had gone from a good mood to some sort of bad/taking control kind of mood. "So," Brad walked over to the couch and stood behind it, looking down at Connor "when you say you realised you loved her... Where were you?" Brad asked.

"Outside her door after leaving."

"And you didn't think to go back in to tell her?"

Connor shook his head "N-no... Like I've been saying... She wouldn't have returned the feelings because she's with Titus and leaving with him," Connor said. By the look on Brad's face, he could tell he was thinking Connor was stupid. He turned his head to Ross who was shaking his head, looking like he had given up on everything. "What..?" Connor asked "am I missing something?"

"A brain! In your skull! That's what you're missing!" Brad said, raising his voice. He groaned, wiping his face with his hands "She might have changed her mind if you would have told her. You're the father of her child, well one of them, yet still... Even the one who isn't your son biologically, still classes you as their Dad over their real one. And I'm pretty sure Tyler and Matty would much prefer you to be with Rydel over Titus. They don't even like him! I know Tyler doesn't, and I'm guessing Matty doesn't either."

Connor shrugged "I know but... they'll get use to him eventually. Little kids do. It's how they work and I'll just become... some stranger that gets mentioned every now and then and seen in photographs because one day they're going to grow up and decide they want to search Rydel on the internet for a joke, and oh look... Connor Ball pops up. They probably won't want anything to do with me when they're older if that happens."

"Hmmm," Brad looked up at the ceiling "I wonder how that could have been avoided."

"Did he wake up like this?" Connor asked, looking at Ross, and commenting on Brad's sass.

"I'd comment, but... I don't want another black eye." Ross said, sitting down at the dining table.

"Seriously, though, Con. You've been there for Tyler, Matty and Rydel ever since they were born, even when Rydel fell pregnant with Matty before Tyler. _You_ were there! Do you not remember that?" Brad asked.

Connor grimaced at the awkward memory "Yeah... We were in a night club in London and... I kinda told her taking pregnancy tests with girls wasn't my department. Or something along them lines," he began to smile "it was so funny now that I think about it. Oh! And the time when she went into labour with them and we put off going to the hospital for something to eat. She absolutely killed me after the twins were born. I lost the feeling in my hand for about a week."

Brad smiled a little at how Connor was getting happy and smiling at memories he shared with Rydel over two years ago. "I mean, I would have been hanging around with you that night in London in the night club, but you didn't come. Where were you?" Connor asked. Brad raised his brow whilst Connor furrowed his. He turned to Ross, seeing the smile on his face that made him look guilty "Oh yeah... EW! NO! NOT AN IMAGE I NEEDED!" Connor covered his face.

Brad sat down next to Connor, pulling his hands away from his face "Connor, focus. Rydel. You can't let her leave without you telling her how you feel. Call her. Please?"

Connor sighed, taking his phone from his pocket. He found Rydel's number and dialled it. "It's ringing." Connor said, having it to his ear. Seconds went by and Connor sighed heavily when he got her answer phone "She's not answering. She probably doesn't have a signal in the airport."

Ross sighed heavily "Oh, the troubles of love. I'm so glad I'm not in this situation."

Connor faced over to Ross again "Hey, don't jinx yourself. Remember the last time you said that to me?" Connor asked.

_Riker stood up from where he sat "How far along is she pregnant?" He asked._

"_A-about 2 weeks... Maybe three. Maybe a month... something like that..."_

_Riker nodded "Did you know pregnancy tests can be wrong?" Riker asked, Connor gave him a blank facial expression "because when Rydel's ill, she's not just ill for a couple days and then it goes away, Connor, oh no. She's ill for a good solid three weeks. And pregnancy tests, they're not always correct."_

_Ross leaned back in his see "See, this is why I'm glad Brad is a guy. I don't have to worry about these things and neither does he. Unless, you know, he's not telling me something."_

"Oh," Ross said. He looked at Brad, smiling "look at that! I knew before you did and I didn't even know it!"

Brad rolled his eyes "What's been holding you back in realising you love her? You could have realised it long before now and she could have avoided getting back with Titus. You two could be together now, happily. Either over here or in England."

Connor shrugged "I-I don't know... Maybe I was scared of rejection. And when I found out she was back with Titus, my jealousy rate kinda went off the chart."

"No. You're kidding? I didn't even notice." Brad said sarcastically.

"Look, it doesn't matter any more," Connor said, sitting back on the couch and slouching. He gave up. He's never had luck with love ever, this being a prime example. "She's going to Australia with him and the boys. She's happy. And if that makes her happy, I guess it makes me happy."

Brad frowned, feeling sympathy for Connor as it was obvious Connor didn't want it to be that way. It's not the way it's supposed to be anyway. "Besides, Titus will be a great Dad to them both. Even better than me, I mean, I wasn't that great anyway. They'll... they'll love him." Connor said, trying to convince himself so that maybe these feelings for Rydel would go away.

"Are you being serious?" Brad asked.

Connor nodded his head. Brad rolled his eyes "You're an amazing Dad to them! Titus will never take that title from you ever! Mainly because Rydel won't let him and the boys will definitely not either. They won't forget who you are. You've been there since – how do I put this without mentally scarring myself? You've basically been there since one out of two were conceived. And oh look, three years later... You're still here. And you've been struggling to get over and see them, yet... You still manage somehow because they're your kids and you love them."

"They're not my kids though. Yeah, Tyler might be, but not Matty."

"Connor, Matty classes you as his Dad as much as Tyler does and you know it. If you ever gave them the chance of asking them 'who do you want to be your dad', they would pick you in a heart beat over anybody in the world. I'm not saying this to make you feel better or to tell you the things you want to hear deep down. It's the truth. And, Jesus Christ Connor, if I ever turn out to be half the Dad you are to my kid someday, I will be more than happy. I'll be over the moon. That's how good of a Dad you are. So don't you dare second guess or think differently."

Connor twitched a smile "Thanks, Brad."

"No problem."

Connor sighed "What am I gonna do? I'm... I'm in love with her, Brad. I can't... As stupid as it sounds... I can't live without her. I love her as much as Ross loves you. Heck, maybe even a little more and I didn't even think that was possible. And... ugh," he put his head into his hands "I'm such a fuck up."

"No, you're a not a fuck up. You're just... A little oblivious to your own feelings as well as other people's." Brad said, rubbing his back for comfort.

Ross scoffed "Says you. Are we forgetting about James and that little situation?"

"Are we forgetting that you have an eye that needs blackening if you don't shut up?" Brad asked. Ross sunk down in his chair. He turned his attention back to Connor "Look... She's in an airport waiting to board a plane in the next hour. There's not much you can do and I'm sorry. I wish there was a way I could help you or that there was a way for you to tell her and be happy. I don't like seeing you sad it's not right."

Connor brought his head up "There's got to be something I can do! I can't let her leave like that! She can't! It can't end like this!" He said, beginning to raise his voice as tears began to glisten in his eyes.

"I'm sorry Connor!" Brad said, raising his voice back "you're out of options! There's nothing you can do! She's going and she'll be gone for a long time. And by the time she gets back you'll have moved on by then! I know that it's not what you want to hear, but... You're gonna have to try and move on."

Connor sighed, sitting back on the couch again. He hated himself right now. Why couldn't he have realised these feelings sooner? Everything would be so much different.

He looked to the ceiling as a silence fell over them. "No." Connor said, suddenly becoming serious.

"What 'no'?" Brad asked.

"I'm not accepting that there's nothing I can do. I'm going after her." He said, standing up.

Ross' eyes widened "You're what..."

"I'm going after her. I'm going to that airport and I'm going to stop her no matter what it takes."

Brad stood up, not knowing whether to smile or to think if it's a bad idea "Y-you're kidding me... Are you sure?" Brad asked.

Connor nodded "Yes. I am. I'm in love with her and you do anything for the person you love, no matter what happens or what the consequences might be," Connor pointed at Ross without looking at him "take Ross for example."

Brad glanced at Ross and back to Connor. He smiled at him "Well then," he picked up his car keys from the table in front of the sofa "let's go." He turned around and he and Connor both made their way to the door.

Ross stood up from the dining room table, confused "Wait, what?! You're actually going to try and stop her from leaving?!" Ross asked.

"Yeah he is! I ain't letting him back out of this one!" Brad said, staying in the doorway as Connor was already in the hallway ready to go.

"And you're going with him?"

"Hell yeah! I've been waiting for this moment ever since they met and I'm not missing it for the world! Come on!" Brad pushed Connor out of the door where they soon took off, running faster than they probably ever have done in their entire life.

Ross shook his head laughing slightly as he closed the door.

To think, in just a few hours everything could be so different and turn out the way it's always meant to have been.

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><p><strong>I normally don't do cheesy cliche love shit like chasing someone in an airport to stop them from leaving, but... it's Connor &amp; Brad. They'll... They'll make it interesting &amp; funny rather than dramatic &amp; cheesy :'')<strong>

**Okay, seriously, it's really annoyed me how only 2 people are reviewing & commenting, letting me know what they think, when there is WAY more than 2 people following the story, Like, it literally doesn't take more than 30 seconds to answer the questions below & let me know what you think. It's not that difficult.**

_**PLEASE REVIEW & ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW :D**_

**Thoughts on Brad?**

**Thoughts on Connor?**

**Thoughts on the flashback from My English Love Affair that I actually wrote? :''') Oh my god, the amount of accidental foreshadowing of the Rad MPREG is hilarious in that story I ain't even kidding.**

**Thoughts on Connor & Brad?**

**Thoughts on Ross?**

**Thoughts on Connor going after Rydel?**


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